Coronis,
or Appendix,
to
True Christian Religion
Emanuel Swedenborg
PROPOSITION THE FIRST (21 - 22)
21. (7)
This Divine work taken together is called redemption, without which no
man can be saved, because not regenerated.
That the redemption accomplished by
the Lord when He was in the world, was the subjugation of the hells, the
arrangement of the heavens in order, and by these a preparation for a new
spiritual church, may be seen in the work, The True Christian Religion (n.
115-117; and likewise from n. 118-133). But inasmuch as this is new, and has
lain hidden for ages, like the wreck of a ship with its valuable wares at the
bottom of the sea, and nevertheless the doctrine of redemption is as it were the
treasury of all the spiritual riches, or the dogmas of the New Church,
therefore, in the last section of this volume, the mystery of redemption shall
be treated of, where the following propositions will be unfolded and presented
in the light:
I. Deliverance from enemies is what in the Word is called
redemption.
II. Consequently, it is a deliverance from evils and falsities;
which, since they are from hell, are spiritual enemies; for they kill souls, as
natural enemies do bodies.
III. Hence it becomes evident that the first of the
redemption accomplished by the Lord was the separation of the evil from the
good, and the elevation of the good to Himself into heaven, and the removal of
the evil from Himself into hell, for thus the good are freed from the evil. This
first of redemption is the Last Judgment (which has been treated of above, n.
10-13).
IV. The second of redemption was the coordination of all things in
the heavens, and the subordination of all things in hell, by which the good were
still more distinctly separated and freed from the evil; and this is the new
heaven and the new hell (which has been treated of above, n. 14-17).
V. The
third of redemption was a revelation of truths out of the new heaven, and
thereby the raising up and establishment of a new church on earth; by which
means the good were still further separated and freed from the evil, and are
separated and freed for the future (this third has also been treated of above,
n. 18-20).
VI. The final cause of redemption was the possibility that the
Lord, from His Divine omnipotence, might regenerate and thereby save man; for,
unless a man be regenerated, he cannot be saved (John 3:3).
VII. The
regeneration of a man, inasmuch as it is a separation and deliverance from evils
and falsities, is a particular redemption by the Lord, existing from His general
redemption.
VIII. With those who are being regenerated, evils are first of
all separated from goods, and this is similar to the judgment: afterwards, goods
are collected together into one, and arranged in a heavenly form, and this is
similar to the new heaven; and, lastly, a new church is implanted and produced
thereby, the internal of which is heaven; and the external from the internal,
consequently both together, with man, are called the church.
IX. All are
redeemed, since all who reject the falsities of the former church, and receive
the truths of the New Church, can be regenerated; but still the regenerated are
properly the redeemed.
X. The goal of redemption, and the prize of the
redeemed, a spiritual peace.
XI. A redemption has also been accomplished by
the Lord at this day, because at this day is His Second Coming according to
prophecy; by which, having been an eye-witness thereof I have been made certain
of the truth of the foregoing arcana.
But these are only summaries, which
must be unfolded one by one, and set forth in both spiritual and natural light,
at the end of this volume, where the mystery of redemption is to be treated of
22. Moreover, it will be proved
in its own section in the following pages, that the Lord's passion of the cross
was not redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the
Father, from which He came forth, and into which He returned. In the work, The
True Christian Religion (n. 132, 133), to which this volume is an Appendix, I
undertook to demonstrate that the belief that the passion of the cross is
redemption itself, is a fundamental error of the present Christian Church; and
that this error, together with the error concerning three Divine Persons from
eternity, has perverted the whole church to such an extent, that there is not a
vestige of what is spiritual remaining in it. This will also be further shown in
the following pages; also, that those two falsities and impostures have been
comparatively like impregnated butterflies flying about in the garden, which lay
worm-producing eggs that being hatched out, entirely consume the leaves of the
trees there; and further, that they have been like the quails from the sea let
down upon the camp of the Israelites, owing to which, while they were eating, a
great plague was brought upon the people; and this for the reason that they
loathed and spurned the manna from heaven, by which, in the highest sense, is
meant the Lord (Num. 11:5, 6, 32-35; and John 6:31, 32, 49-51, 58). And further,
those two errors were like two fragments of soot, or shoemaker's blacking,
dropped into generous wine, and shaken about in the glass, in consequence of
which all the brightness, delightful fragrance, and fine flavor of the wine are
changed into a black appearance, a disagreeable smell, and a nauseous taste.
|
