Coronis, or Appendix,
to True Christian Religion

Emanuel Swedenborg

FOURTH PROPOSITION (59)

59. (V) Before this state, and after it, promise was made of the Coming of the Lord Jehovih into the world, and of a New Church at that time, wherein justice and judgment should reign. It is known, from the reading of the prophetic Word of the Old Testament, that in many places there the Coming of our Lord was foretold, and also that the Lord is there designated by various names; as that He is called "Jehovah Zebaoth," "Jehovah our Justice," "Jehovah our Saviour and Redeemer," "Lord Jebovih," "Lord" (Adonai), "Immanuel" or "God with us," "God of Israel," "Holy One of Israel," "Rock of Israel," "Messiah," or "Anointed of Jehovah," "King," "David," "Strong One of Jacob," "Shepherd of Israel," "High Priest," "Priest after the manner of Melchizedech," "Son of God," "Son of Man," "Angel of Jehovah," "Angel of the Covenant," the "Greatest Prophet," "Shiloh;" also, in Isaiah, "Counsellor," "Prince of Peace," "Father of Eternity;" and in the New Covenant, "Jesus Christ," and "Son of God." That our Lord's Coming was foretold in very many places in the Prophets, will be seen from the citation of the predictions in the following pages. But it may be asked, Why was such frequent prediction of His Coming made? There were several reasons: some regarding the Israelitish and Jewish people, and some regarding the Christian people after them.

[2] But we will recount the reasons which especially regarded the Israelitish and Jewish people.

The first was, that by His being named and recalled to mind, they might be kept in the interior worship of Jehovah, since without that there was no entrance of Jehovah to any one of them, nor access of any one of them to Jehovah. The case was then as it is at this day:

That no one hath seen God the Father; the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; He hath set Him forth (John 1:18; 5:37).

And again:

No one cometh to the Father, but by Me (John 14:6).

The second reason regarding that people was that the representative types of their church, which all looked to our Lord and to the church to be established by Him after His Coming, might serve them as so many indicators and symbols of their worship, consequently, that they might acknowledge Him when He came, and suffer themselves to be introduced into the internals of the worship of Him, and, together with the nations that surrounded them, become Christian.

The third reason was, that by the recollection of His Coming, some notion of idea of the resurrection and eternal life might enter into their thoughts. For who of them could not have thought interiorly in himself or in his heart, "What is the Messiah to us after we are dead, unless we return then, see His glory, and reign with Him?" From this source was derived that religious notion of theirs, that at that time they were to be raised again, everyone out of his grave, and return into the land of Canaan.

The fourth reason was, that they might be lifted up and healed in their state of vastation and oppression, when they were in temptations and afflictions, as their fathers and brethren had been in the desert (Num. 21:1-9; John 3:14, 15); for without such uplifting and healing, they would have cast aspersions against Jehovah, and departed in crowds from the representative worship of Him to idolatry.

[3] For temptations and afflictions in the state of vastation and oppression, are nothing else but combats of the Lord with the Devil respecting man, that is, respecting his soul, which shall possess it. And of that state it may be said that the God of Israel, or the Lord the Messiah, stands on one side, and Beelzebub and the serpent the Devil on the other, and that the latter casts forth blasphemies against the Lord out of his mouth like a river, but that the Lord turns them aside and removes them, and thus delivers man from spiritual captivity and servitude. This combat is felt in the man as if from himself. That temptation is such a combat, and there is such a perception by man, and hence cooperation, I can testify upon oath, for, having often experienced it, I know it. That it is carried on outside the man, and is felt in him as from himself, and that man is standing in the middle and cooperates, is for the end that reward may be imputed to him when he conquers; but that man alone conquers who looks to the Lord, and trusts in Him alone for help.

[4] That everyone conquers who calls upon the Lord in temptations, but that otherwise he succumbs, shall be illustrated by comparisons. He is like a ship hurled by storms near rocks: unless the captain knows how to turn it aside from its danger, and to direct it to an exit and thus to port, it must perish. He is like a city besieged by enemies: unless there be escape or aid somewhere, the commander and his troops become hopeless and disheartened, and deliver themselves up prisoners, and surrender their lives to the pleasure of the enemy. He is like a person on a journey entering unawares into a cottage where there are robbers: unless when he is shut in, a friend comes and knocks at the door, or shows himself at the window, and thereby terrifies those villains, and saves him from the outrage. He is like a person falling into a cave where there is a bear with its cubs, or into a pit containing a wolf and a leopard, where he must perish unless his father or his brother, on seeing this, immediately lets down to him a ladder or a rope, and draws him up thence. He is like a person who stands or walks in the day-time in a thick fog, who consequently does not know which way to turn, unless he lights a lamp, and thereby shows himself the place where he may stand, or the way in which he may walk. He is like one who is in the depth of winter, and in want of provisions, if he is not supported by the hope of a harvest to come on the return of the sun. In like manner he is as one who wanders about at midnight in a forest, unless he comfort himself with the hope of light, and in that hope lies down and sleeps quietly until the morning. He is also like one who for the sake of salvation desires to be instructed in those things which are of the Christian Religion, and who meets with mitred doctors and laurelled teachers, who expound them by terms borrowed from the metaphysical art, and involves them in mystical things, unless there be some other person to dissect those terms, and thereby unravel the perplexities, and to bring forth from the Word, thus from the Lord, the holy things of the church into clear light. Would he not in such case be bewildered by the falsities respecting faith and other dogmas, which depend on the faith laid down, just as the links of a chain hang connectedly from a hook fixed to the wall?

[5] The case would be similar in temptations and the infestations at that time from satans, unless man looked with confidence to the Lord, and fully assured himself that the whole work and ability of deliverance came from Him alone. It is for these reasons that the Coming of the Lord is so frequently foretold in the Old Prophetic Word, and for the same reasons also the Lord is proclaimed in the New Evangelic and Apostolic Word, and His Second Coming foretold; concerning which in the following passages.