Concerning The Lord
(De Domino)

by Emanuel Swedenborg  [1760]

Translated by Samuel H. Worcester  [1885]

1. Preface
A revelation has been made by the Lord concerning heaven and hell, concerning the Last Judgment which has been accomplished, concerning the spiritual sense of the Word; thus has been revealed the way to salvation, and concerning the state of man after death; and this has been done fully and manifestly, so that anyone who understands the Latin language may know. All this was done and published a year ago. But still the church does not care for this. In heaven they wonder very greatly that the church is in such a state that the things which are its very essentials are not even looked into, but are left as matters of no moment-an indication that heavenly things do not occupy their minds at all, and are not seen when revealed.

2. (Let all the articles in the four treatises be transcribed in their order.)

3. CONCERNING THE LORD The Lord as to the Human was life from Himself (from the Word).

4. The Lord was from eternity (from the Word).

5. The Lord is almighty (from the Word).

6. The Lord became invisible; nevertheless He was in the Human Body; this could not have been from the mother (from the Word).

7. What is this: that the Divine is distinguished into three Persons? Where is this in the Word?

8. What is this: that the Lord was born from eternity? But that the Divine is one, or one Person, or one Man, this is understood; then that the Divine was from eternity.

9. But they are to be excused who have not known anything concerning the style of the Word - that there is a spiritual sense in every expression.

10. Concerning the mother He also said: That she was not blessed because she bare Him; but that they are blessed that hear the Word and keep it (Luke 11:27, 28). He said this lest they should attribute to her something Divine because she was the mother.

11.  He went out from the Father, and came into the world, and returns to the Father (John 14:27-28).

12.  He went out from the Father (John 14:12; 16:5, 10, 16-17, 30; 17:8; also John 10:9; Isaiah 25:9).

13.  He came down from heaven (from the Word).

14.  WHAT IS BELIEVED It is believed in the Christian world that angels have assumed human bodies, and have thus appeared to men; but they did not assume them, but the eyes of man's spirit were opened, and so they were seen. So did angels appear to Abraham and to the others; so did the horses and chariots of fire appear around Elisha, where it is said, "Open his eyes" (2 Kings 6:17). That the Lord appeared thus, is known; but with the difference that the Lord appeared as to the body which He had in the world; angels, however, as to the bodies which belong to spirits, which are in human form, but not as the Lord was.

15.  So were seen by John the things which are in Revelation. He also says this (Rev. 1:10).

16.  It is known that men are made spiritual through temptations. Much more was this the case with the Lord, because He was God from conception.

17.  Through temptations man becomes spiritual and is conjoined to heaven. But the Lord through temptations conjoined His Human to the Divine Itself which was in Him, and so He became God as to the Human.

18.  Anyone can see that the Soul which was the very Divine could not dwell in an infirm body such as it is from its own nature. The case is different with the bodies of men who from the father are born into evil affections.

19.  All are allotted places in the heavens according to the idea of their faith in respect to the Divine Human of the Lord, and therefore according to their reception of the Lord through truths and goods. (Let the Gentiles be considered, concerning whom . . .)

20.  FROM REASON Through this the Papists have claimed for themselves Divine authority.

21.  The affection itself which is of the love, is from the father; and this is also a man's very life or soul; but the clothing is from the mother. Hence it is manifest of what quality the Lord was, as to the soul, or life - that He was the Divine love. And this could not be together with what was put on from the mother, without casting it off successively, for the mother was born into sins, as is every man. This was the infirm human which He assumed, so as to be able to admit into Himself temptations, and to conquer the hells, and to dispose into order all things in the heavens and the hells; when this was cast off, He united the Human to the Divine, or glorified the Human. It may be known that such as a man is as to affection which is of love, such is the man. Who does not value another according to his affection?

22.  That the Lord executed a judgment when He was in the world, is plainly evident from many passages in the Word, as from all those in which is named "the day of Jehovah," which is said to be terrible, and which is called "the day of Zebaoth."

23.  FROM ATHANASIUS It is there said that the Divine took to itself the Human. But it is according to the Lord's words that the Divine took to itself the Human, and that the Human took to itself the Divine; for He says, "Believe me that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father." That He said this concerning His Human, is evident from the words that immediately precede, "He that seeth me, seeth the Father," etc.

24.  I can assert, and declare it as certain, that such as is man's idea of faith concerning the Lord, such is the conjunction that he has in heaven.

25.  FROM EXPERIENCE Because it has been granted me to have consociation with angels, to speak with them, and to see the things that are in the heavens, and also to speak with those who have died - with nearly all whom I have known - I wish to tell something concerning it that I have heard on this subject:

26.  Christians for the most part acknowledge three Gods, and they seek for one or another; only they who are in the affection of spiritual truth acknowledge the Lord alone as God.

27.  They who acknowledge the Father as separate and as the one only God, worship nature, etc.

28.  All the angels from perception acknowledge the Divine.

29.  All who in heart acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, are received into heaven; and the rest cannot be received; the reasons.

30.  The Gentiles acknowledge when instructed; and therefore they are received; according to the Lord's words, "They shall come from the east and the west."

31.  Mary acknowledged Him for her God and her Lord; this was heard with the living voice.

32.  The Papists turned themselves away, and were not able to answer anything, when it was said that no other is meant for the Father than the Lord's Divine.

33.  All infants in heaven know no other Divine.

34.  No one comes into the New Jerusalem, who does not acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord.

35.  This is meant by the Coming of the Lord in glory.

36.  (Read Deut. 33:8, 9; also Zech. 14:9; Isa. 40:3-12; 25:9. Other passages which agree with these may be introduced from the collected passages.)

37.  FROM THE WORD From the Word that God is one; or "Beside me there is no God."

38.  The Lord was conceived of the Divine Itself, which is named Jehovah and the Father. (Let Matt. 1:18-25 and Luke 1:35-37 be introduced.)

39.  God Himself came into the world and put on the Human, and made this Divine (John 1:1, 3, 14), namely: God was the Word, and the Word was made Flesh (John 1:1, 14); thus God was made Flesh, that is, Man. He also was the Creator, for it is said: The world was made by Him (John 1:10). (See also Isa. 9:6; 7:14; Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16; Isa. 42:8; Mal. 3:1; Isa. 25:9.) Also, He was from eternity (from the Gospels).

40.  It was His own Divine which assumed the Human, and this was the Divine which He called the Father, and not another Divine. Therefore He says: He that seeth Me, seeth the Father (John 14:7-11); He is in the Father and the Father in Him, and that they are One (John 10:30, 38)

41.  He glorified His Human from the Divine in Himself. (See Index Biblicus, s. v. "to glorify.")

42.  He no longer acknowledged the mother, nor David (let passages be quoted), and so He was not his son.

43.  Wherefore the Divine Human is to be approached and worshiped from faith and love. (Let passages be introduced from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine.)

44.  They saw the Lord in Human form; and He was called Jehovah by Abraham (let this also be brought in). This was confirmed by the Lord, when He said that He was before Abraham.

45.  He was also seen by the disciples; He was Man before their eyes, and He was also Man when He became invisible (Luke 24:31). Whence this was.

46.  He is omnipresent "all the days" (Matt. 28:20); and in the Holy Supper He is omnipresent as to the Human; and omnipresence is Divine.

47.  He has all authority in the heavens and in earth, as to the Human also.

48.  He is to judge all; to him has been given judgment, also, in the last day.

49.  He was united to His Divine by successive steps, for reasons that will be given below; and He was united [to it] through temptations and victories. Full unition was accomplished by the passion of the cross. (From passages in the Word.)

50.  So far as He was united, so far He spoke with Himself; but so far as He was not yet united, so far He spoke as with another. The latter was His state of humiliation, but the former the state of glorification.

51.  That He meant Himself when He named the Father, is plain from passages quoted above.

52.  That for the sake of the internal sense He named the Divine good Father, and the Divine truth Christ, is plain from Matt. 23:9, 10 (which may be introduced), and from very many other passages.

53.  To know and acknowledge its God is the first thing of the church, for the reason that without this there is no safety; as may be manifest from the Jews, that when they did not worship Jehovah, although they were steadfast in their other rites, they were accursed. (Passages from the Word.) Then that the Lord so often said, Because they believe, therefore it is done to them - for this was then the first thing, to believe in the Lord, and to believe that to Him was all authority; and because of their former faith, He said, "the Father" before them, but He meant Himself, as is plain from many passages. (Let the passages be quoted.) This knowledge and acknowledgment conjoin; and without them there is no conjunction, and thus no salvation.

54.  (All the passages may perhaps be quoted in which it is said, "My Father," "your Father," "the Father who is in the heavens"; and it may be briefly told what they signify.)

55.  FROM REASON There is one God; and this is acknowledged in all the world.

56.  The soul induces likeness in the body, and the body is but the external form of its own soul.

57.  The Divine Itself, and the Divine love, was His soul; it could not be otherwise than that the body should be like it.

58.  All the affections of a father abide in his children. (From experience.)

59.  In the Christian world they have with difficulty an idea of the Divine in the Human; but still, everywhere . . . (Let the sections be reviewed - and wherever . . .)

60.  When three Persons of the Divinity are acknowledged, there can by no means be the acknowledgment of one God.

61.  The acknowledgment of three Persons has withheld Mohammedans, Jews, and others, from the reception of Christianity.

62.  Everyone ought to know his God, so that He may be conjoined to him and be saved. The Lord can be seen by faith, and can be known by love; but not the Father. No one has seen the Father. (Let passages be introduced from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, n. 283.)

63.  (Lastly.) CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT (From those things which are in the explanation of the Apocalypse, n. 183.)

64.  What is meant by this - That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Lord - but that which is holy proceeds, which is called the Holy Spirit?

65.  The sin against the Holy Spirit is the denial of the Divine of the Lord (Matt. 12:28, 32; Mark 3:28, 29; Luke 11:20, etc.). This is evident from what precedes. They said that He cast out demons "by the prince of the demons"; and He said that He did it "by the Spirit of God," that is, by His own Divine. This denial in heart is not remitted, for such cannot enter heaven; as all Socinians. (Some things concerning them from experience.)

66.  Also they within the church who deny the Divine of the Lord, and who acknowledge the Father only, cannot be saved. And very many of them acknowledge nature; and they therefore have no other idea of the Divine than as of nature in its least parts. Reasons will be given why they cannot be turned to the Lord, but turn to worldly loves. (These things last.)

67.  That by "the Spirit of God" is meant the Divine, is also manifest in Luke, where it is said, "By the finger of God" (Luke 11:20); and "the finger of God" signifies the Divine power.

68.  That the Father means by the Divine of the Lord is evident; also that the Lord says that their sons cast out demons through Him (Matt. 12:27; also Luke 11:19). Jesus gave unto the disciples authority over all demons (Luke 9:1; 10:17, 20; Mark 16:17, 18). That in the name of the Lord they cast out demons (Luke 9:49, 50; Mark 9:38).

69.  That among Christians the Human was made distinct from the Divine, and was made merely human, was chiefly for the sake of the Pope, who did not dare to call himself God's vicar.

70.  Every man is born ignorant of truth, and desirous of evil, because his soul, from his father, is an evil affection. But the Lord alone is born seeking good, and desiring truth, because His soul from the Father was the Divine itself, thus the affection of Divine love, or the Divine love, from which He subdued the external which was from the mother.

71.  By "the Son of man" is meant truth from the Divine. (Because this is not understood, it must be explained.)

72.  LASTLY (Lastly bring together passages concerning the Lord from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine . . . also from Arcana Coelestia; then from Heaven and Hell, from Last Judgment . . . and from Earths in the Universe; only the cited passages concerning the Lord.)