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Athanasian Creed · 3 of 9

Concerning the Creed of Athanasius

19.CONCERNING THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS The whole Creed of Athanasius can be harmonized, when one is acknowledged; that is, one only Divine; and if the one only Divine is acknowledged which the Lord calls His Father, and which is His own Divine.

20.The whole, also, can be harmonized that it may be perceived altogether according to the very expression used in the Creed of Athanasius, which is the Creed of England; namely, that they adore the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity; for the Trinity in Unity is then adored, when it is in one, or in one Person; and the Unity in Trinity is then adored, or one Person in whom is a trine.

21.That the Lord is called “the Lord Jehovih,” may be seen Isa. 40:10; 52:4; 61:2; (that he is called “Jehovah,”) Ps. 96:2, 13, and throughout the psalm.

22.Who can conceive that the Divine Itself, in body, can be simultaneously in the human from the mother, which thence is infirm? Cannot anyone see that the Divine, which is life Itself, made the human an image of Itself, and thus also Divine? And that it did this by successive steps, as it glorified it through temptations? If this were not so, would not the corporeal idea be that the Lord’s Divine was as it were outside of the human and not within it, and as one with the human? As indeed the Creed of Athanasius teaches, that they are not two, but one Person, and that they are united as soul and body. How then can one think separately of the soul of any man, and of the body, that is, to separate them in the idea of thought? Would not this be thinking of a human body without the life, as of a corpse?

23.Isaiah 7:14, 15; “Immanuel”: That this is plainly said of His Human, may be seen explained in Apocalypse Explained (n. 619).

24.That the Son was born of the Father from eternity, is such a paradox that the human understanding, or even the angelic understanding in the third heaven, can by no means be so enlightened as to have any perception of it; for what is it to be born from eternity?

25.And further, it is said that the three Persons are one substance or essence, when yet they are made distinct as to attributes; as it is taught that the Father created, that the Son redeemed, and that the Holy Spirit teaches. Those attributes are Divine; and when they are made distinct, it follows that the substance or essence Itself, which is called one, is made distinct, by specific attributes, into three essences.

26.An arcanum in heaven and in the world, is this, namely, that things were so created that every good conjoined to truth clothes Itself with forms; principally with the human form, since the Divine good and the Divine truth proceed from the Divine Human of the Lord and from every part of the body. The putting on of form, which is everywhere in the atmospheres, is an arcanum of which no one yet has knowledge; and it is an essential of the atmosphere, both the spiritual and the natural. Hence insects are born, each according to its spiritual genius; and hence affection everywhere clothes Itself with a body; hence there are so many great and small; that there are also things of the vegetable kingdom is for the reason that their first substances are in nature, and that thus they are destitute of life, etc. etc.; and that they have relation to the human, etc., etc.

27.These things have been presented, that some idea may be acquired concerning the Divine Human from the Father, namely, that the Divine clothed Itself with the Human, according to Divine order, from firsts to lasts; and therefore in the Divine Human was Divine order; consequently, that thus it fills all things, or is omnipresent everywhere.

28.That the Divine truth, which is the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of truth, is from the Lord alone, is evident from the passages in which it is said that the Holy Spirit is from Him; the Holy Spirit is the Divine truth. (See John 7:39, and other places.)

29.That the Human is Divine, is manifest in Isaiah, where it is said that: A virgin shall bring forth a son, whose name is God with us (Isa. 7:14); and in another passage: A Son and Boy shall be born, whose name shall be God, Father of eternity (Isa. 9:6). It is also said that: Of David shall One be born who shall be called Jehovah, our Justice (Jer. 23:6; 33:15-16). In these and other passages, is meant the Lord as to the Human; which therefore is called “God,” “Father of eternity,” “Jehovah.”