Coronis,
or Appendix,
to
True Christian Religion
Emanuel Swedenborg
PROPOSITION THE FIRST (6 - 9)
6.
(3) In each church there have been four successive changes of
state; the first of which was the appearing of the Lord Jehovih and
redemption, and then its morning, or rise: the second was its
instruction, and then its day, or progression: the third was its
decline; and then its evening or vastation: the fourth was its end;
and then its night or consummation.
That there have been four
successive states of each church, which in the Word are meant by
"morning," "day," "evening," and "night," has been shown in the
preceding article. That every one of the four churches mentioned
above underwent those states, will be fully established in the
following pages, where each will be dealt with in its order; and
then that the appearing of the Lord Jehovih and redemption was its
"morning;" that instruction was its "day" or progression into light;
also, that decline was its "evening" or vastation; and that its end
was its "night" or consummation. In the Word, both in its historical
and its prophetical parts, those four changes of state are
everywhere treated of.
7. The order into which every man was created by God, is, that after infancy he
may become a man. For when he is born, he is only an external image or form of a
man, and at that time less a man than a new-born beast is a beast; but, so far
as he is inwardly perfected in this form, as to his mind, or his spirit, in
wisdom and love, he becomes a man. A man is like a tree, which first grows up
from a seed into a shoot, and when it increases in height puts forth branches
and from these stems, and clothes itself continually with leaves; and when it
comes to maturity, which takes place in its middle age, puts forth flowers, and
produces fruits; in each one it places seeds, which being cast into the earth,
as into a womb, grow up into similar trees and thus into a garden. And if you
are willing to believe it, that same garden remains with the man after death; he
dwells in it, and is delighted daily with the sight of it, and with the use of
its fruits. It is such a man who is described in David by these words:
He
shall be like a tree planted beside the rivers of waters, which shall bring
forth its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not fall off (Ps. 1:3 and
likewise Rev. 22:1-2).
[2] But the case is different with the man born in the
church, who, when he has passed through his morning, and advanced into the first
light of day, whereby he has become rational, then stops, and does not produce
fruit: such a one is, or may be, like a tree luxuriant with leaves, but not
bearing fruit, which is uprooted from the garden, its branches cut off, and the
trunk cleft in pieces with axe, or saw, and the whole then cast little by little
into the fire. The light of his rational becomes like the light of the days of
winter, in which the leaves of the trees first grow yellow, then drop off, and
lastly rot. His rational, also, may be compared with a tree whose leaves are
consumed by worms in early spring; likewise with a crop that is choked by
thorns; and also with vegetation which is laid waste by locusts. The reason is,
that his rational is merely natural, because it takes its ideas solely from the
world through the senses, and not from heaven through the affections and the
perceptions therefrom. And since, on this account, there is nothing spiritual
inwardly in his rational, if he then speaks of any spiritual thing of the
church, his voice is heard by the angels no otherwise than as the voice of a
parrot or a goose; for his voice is merely animal, because merely natural, and
not human because not spiritual within; for it flows forth from the respiration
of the body only, and not from any respiration of the spirit. Such is the man
who does not, from natural, become spiritual; and no one becomes spiritual,
unless, after he has become rational, he brings forth fruits, that is, imbues
charity by life.
8. The four changes of state, which are
called "morning," "day," "evening," and "night," are in the Word predicated of
the church, because the church consists of men, and a man is a church in
particular, and the assembly of these men is what is called the church. Those in
this assembly or the church, who live according to the order described above (n.
7), are trees of life, which also are trees of good use; but those who do not
live according to that order are trees of the knowledge of good and evil, which
also are trees of evil use. The latter are those of whom "evening" and "night,"
or, what is the same, vastation and consummation, are predicated; but not the
former. These things, however, will be made evident to the reason in the
following pages; but it is proper, that, at the beginning of this volume, some
preliminary observations should be made, because knowledges must precede before
any one can know that by "morning" is meant the rise of the church, and that
this is preceded by redemption; by "day," the progression of the new church into
light, and its intelligence; by "evening," the decline of that church from good
and truth, which is called vastation; and by "night," its end and destruction,
which is called consummation; and so on.
9. The end of the church, or the
consummation of the age, is when there is not any genuine truth and hence not
any genuine good, or when there is not any good and hence not any truth
remaining, but, in their place falsity and evil therefrom, or evil and falsity
therefrom, rule; and then there is the "fullness [of time]" in the church, the
members of which are like persons walking in the night, who, because they do not
see anything that appears in the light of the sun, are in doubt about all things
relating to the church, and in general about God, heaven and hell, and the life
after death; and both those who confirm themselves in the denial of these
things, and those who remain alternately in doubt and in affirmation, become
shunners of the light, and, if they are priests, they procure to themselves a
false light on those subjects, such as night-owls, cats, and mice have in the
darkness of night. This light is excited with them, as with these wild beasts,
through the activities of their lusts.
|
