Coronis, or Appendix,
to True Christian Religion

Emanuel Swedenborg

SECOND PROPOSITION (27 - 28)

27. (b) The second state of this Most Ancient Church, or its progression into light and day, is described in the second chapter of Genesis, by these words:

God planted a garden in Eden at the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed, to till and keep it. And Jehovah made to spring forth every tree desirable to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went forth out of Eden to water the garden, which became into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eat not (Gen. 2:8-17).

[2] That a "garden" signifies the church as to its truths and goods, is from the correspondence of a tree with a man for a tree in like manner as a man is conceived from seed, is put forth from the womb of the earth in like manner as a man from the womb of his mother; it grows in height in like manner, and propagates itself in branches as he in members clothes itself with leaves and adorns itself with blossoms in like manner as a man does with natural and spiritual truths; and also produces fruits in like manner as a man does goods of use. Hence it is that in the Word a man is so often compared to a "tree," and the church to a "garden;" as in the following passages:

Jehovah will set her desert like Eden, and her solitude like the garden of Jehovah (Isa. 51:3);

speaking of Zion, which signifies the church wherein God is worshiped according to the Word:

Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of waters, whose waters shall not lie (Isa. 58:11; Jer. 31:12).

Here also it treats of the church:

Thou art full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty; thou wast in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering (Ezek. 28:12, 13).

This is respecting Tyre, by which is signified the church, as to the knowledges of truth and good:
How good are thy habitations, O Israel; as valleys they are planted, and as gardens beside the river (Num. 24:5, 6);

by "Israel" is signified the spiritual church; but by "Jacob" the natural church in which is the spiritual.

Nor was any tree in the garden of God equal to him in beauty; so that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. 31:8, 9).

It is here speaking of Egypt and Assyria, by which, where mentioned in a good sense, the church is signified as to knowledges and perceptions.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is the midst of the paradise of God (Apoc. 2:7).

[3] From the correspondence of a garden with the church, it comes to pass that everywhere in the heavens gardens appear producing leaves, flowers and fruits, according to the states of the church with the angels; and it has been told me that in some of the gardens there, trees of life are seen in the middle parts, and trees of the knowledge of good and evil in the boundaries, as a sign that they are in free-will in spiritual things. The church is oftentimes described in the Word by a "garden," a "field," and a "sheepfold;" by a "garden," from the trees, as mentioned above; by a "field," from its crops, wherewith man is nourished; by a "sheepfold," from the sheep, by which are meant the faithful and useful.

28. In the work itself named The True Christian Religion, it has been shown that the two trees, the one of "life," and the other of the "knowledge of good and evil," being placed in the garden of Eden, signified that free-will in spiritual things was given to man (n. 466-469); to which must be added that without such free-will man would not be man, but only a figure and effigy; for his thought would be without reflection, consequently without judgment, and thus in the Divine things which are of the church, he would have no more power of turning himself, than a door without a hinge, or, with a hinge, fastened with a steel bolt; and his will would be without decision, consequently no more active with respect to justice or injustice, than the stone upon a tomb under which lies a dead body. That man's life after death, together with the immortality of his soul, is owing to the gift of that free-will, and that this is the "likeness of God," has been proved in the work itself, as also above.

[2] Yea, man, that is, his mind, without that would be like a sponge which imbibes water in great abundance but is not able to discharge it, in consequence of which both would decompose, the water into corruption, and the sponge into slime. In the same manner the church with him would not be a church, and thus a temple wherein the worship of God is performed: it would be like the den of some wild beast under the root of a lofty tree which rocks itself to and from over its head, except only that it would be able to take something therefrom, and apply itself to some other use besides lying in tranquillity under it. Moreover without free will in spiritual things, man would be more blind in all and each of the things of the church, than a bird of night in the light of day, but more sharp-sighted [in respect to falsities] than that bird in the darkness of night: for he would shut his eyelids, and contract their sight against the truths of faith; but he would raise his eyelids, open his eyes, and dilate their sight like the eagle, to the falsities of faith. Free-will in spiritual things, is from this, that man walks and lives his life in the midst between heaven and hell; and that heaven operates in him from above, but hell from beneath; and that the option is given to a man of turning himself either to higher things or to lower things, thus, either to the Lord or to the Devil.