Coronis (Appendix to the True Christian Religion) · 2 of 4

Proposition the Second

23.PROPOSITION THE SECOND. The Adamic, or Most Ancient Church of this Earth. The world has hitherto believed that by “the creation of heaven and earth,” in the first chapter of Genesis, is meant the creation of the universe, according to the letter; and by “Adam,” the first man of this earth. The world could not believe otherwise, since the spiritual or internal sense of the Word has not been disclosed, nor, consequently, that by “creating heaven and earth” is meant to collect and found an angelic heaven from those who have departed the life in the world, and by this means to derive and produce a church on earth (as above, n. 18-20); and that by the names of persons, nations, territories, and cities, are meant such things as relate to heaven, and at the same time to the church: in like manner, therefore, by “Adam.” That by “Adam,” and by all those things which are related of him and his posterity in the first chapters of Genesis, are described the successive states of the Most Ancient Church, which are its rise or morning, its progression into light or day, its decline or evening, its end or night, and after this the Last Judgment upon it, and thereafter a new angelic heaven from the faithful, and a new hell from the unfaithful, according to the series of the progressions laid down in the preceding proposition, has been minutely explained, unfolded and demonstrated in the Arcana Coelestia on Genesis and Exodus, the labor of eight years, published in London; which word being already in the world, nothing further is necessary than to re-capitulate therefrom the universals respecting this Most Ancient Church, which will be cited in the present volume. [2] At the outset, however, some passages shall be adduced from the Word, by which it is proved, that by “creating” is there signified to produce and form anew, and properly to regenerate; which is the reason that regeneration is called a new creation, by which the whole heaven of angels and the whole church of men, exist, consist and subsist. That “creating” signifies this, is plainly manifest from these passages in the Word: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a firm spirit in the midst of me (Ps. 51:10). Thou openest the hand, they are filled with good; Thou sendeth forth the Spirit, they are created (Ps. 104:28, 30). The people that shall be created shall praise Jah (Ps. 102:18). Thus said Jehovah, thy Creator, O Jacob; thy Former, O Israel: Every one that is called by My Name, him have I created for My glory (Isa. 43:1, 7). That they may see, know, attend and understand, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20). In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. 28:13, 15). These things are concerning the king of Tyre. Jehovah that createth the heavens, that spreadeth abroad the earth, that giveth a soul unto the people upon it (Isa. 42:5; 45:12, 18). Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; be ye glad to eternity in that which I create: behold I am about to create Jerusalem an exultation (Isa. 65:17, 18). As the new heavens and the new earth, which I am about to make, shall stand before Me (Isa. 66:22). I saw a new heaven and a new earth: the former heaven and the former earth are passed away (Apoc. 21:1). According to promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which justice shall dwell (2 Peter 3:13). From these passages it is now manifested what is spiritually meant in the first chapter of Genesis, by the verses: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was “waste and empty” [1, 2]. The earth called “waste and empty,” signifies that there was no longer any good of life nor any truth of doctrine with its inhabitants. That “wasteness” and “emptiness” signify the deprivation of these two essentials of the church, will be established in proposition IV of this volume, respecting the Israelitish Church, by a thousand passages from the Word: at present let the following in Jeremiah serve for some illustration: I saw the land, when, behold, it was vacant and empty; and I looked towards the heavens, when their light was not. Thus said Jehovah, The whole land shall be wasteness; for this shall the land mourn, and the heavens above shall be made black (4:23, 27, 28).

24.This church, like the rest, shall be treated of in the following order:- I. Its rise, or morning, which is its first state. II.Its progression into light, or day, which is its second state. III. Its decline, or evening, which is its third state, and is called vastation. IV. Its end, or night, which is its fourth state, and is called consummation. V. The separation of the evil from the good, which is the Last Judgment upon all who were of that church. VI. The elevation of the good to God, of whom a new heaven is formed; and the removal of the evil from God, of whom is formed a new hell. That the four churches of this earth, of which we have treated above, have undergone these changes of state, will be shown in what follows; and lastly, that the church truly Christian, which succeeds those four at the present day, will never undergo consummation.

25.I. The first state of this Most Ancient Church, or its rise and morning, is described in the first chapter of Genesis by these words: God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (vers. 26, 27); and also by these in the second chapter: Jehovah God formed man dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the soul of lives; and man became a living soul (ver. 7). That its rise, or morning, is described by his being made, or created, “in the image of God,” is because every man, when he is first born and is an infant, interiorly is an “image of God;” for the faculty of receiving and of applying to himself those things which proceed from God, is implanted in him; and since exteriorly he is also formed “dust of the earth,” and there is thence in him an inclination to lick that dust, like the serpent (Gen. 3:14), therefore if he remains an external or natural man, and does not become at the same time internal or spiritual, he shatters the image of God, and puts on the image of the serpent which seduced Adam. But, on the other hand, the man who strives and labors to become an “image of God,” subdues the external man in himself, and interiorly in the natural becomes spiritual, thus spiritual-natural; and this is effected by a new creation, that is, regeneration by the Lord. Such a man is an “image of God,” because he wills and believes that he lives from God, and not from himself: on the contrary, man is an image of the serpent, while he wills and believes that he lives from himself, and not from God. What is man but an “image of God,” when he wills and believes that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him (John 6:56, 14:20, 15:4, 5, 7, 17:26), and that he can do nothing of himself (John 3:27, 15:5)? What is a man, but an “image of God,” when, by new generation, he becomes a “son of God” (John 1:12, 13)? Who does not know that the image of the father is in the son? The rise, or morning, of this church is described by Jehovah God’s “breathing into his nostrils the soul of lives,” and by his thus “becoming a living soul,” because by “lives,” in the plural, are meant love and wisdom, and these two are essentially God; for, as far as a man receives and applies to himself those two essentials of life, which proceed continually from God, and flow continually into the souls of men, so far he becomes “a living soul;” for “lives” are the same as love and wisdom. Hence it is evident, that the rise and morning of the life of the men of the Most Ancient Church, who taken together are represented by “Adam,” is described by those two shrines of life.

26.The “likeness of God,” according to which man was made, is his being able to live, that is, to will, to love, and to intend, as also to think, to reflect, and to choose, in all appearance as from himself; consequently, in his being able to receive from God those things which are of love and those things which are of wisdom, and to reproduce them in a likeness from himself as God does; for God says: Behold the man was as one of us, in knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:22); for, without the faculty of receiving and reproducing those things which proceed into him from God, in all appearance as from himself, man would be no more a “living soul” than an oyster in its shell at the bottom of a stream, which is not in the least able to move itself out of its place. Nor would he be any more an “image of God” than a jointed statue of a man capable of motion by means of a handle, and of giving forth sound by being blown into; yea, the very mind of man, which is the same as his spirit, would actually be wind, air, or ether, according to the idea of the church at this day respecting spirit. For without the faculty of receiving and reproducing the things flowing in from God, altogether as from himself, he would not have anything of his own, or a proprium, except an imperceptible one, which is like the proprium of a lifeless piece of sculpture. But more about the image and likeness of God with man, may be seen, in a Relation in the preceding work, of which this is the Appendix (n. 48).

27.II. 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). The progression of this church into light, or day, is described by Adam’s being placed in the garden of Eden, because by a “garden” is signified the church as to its truths and goods. That “there went forth out of Eden a river, which became into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone,” signifies that in that church there was the doctrine of good and truth; for a “river” signifies doctrine, “gold” its good, and “schoham stone” its truth. That two trees were placed in that garden, the one of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil,” was because the “tree of life” signifies the Lord, in whom and from whom is the life of heavenly love and wisdom, which in itself is eternal life; and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” signifies man, in whom is the life of infernal love, and thence insanity in the things of the church, which life regarded in itself is eternal death. That it was allowed “to eat of every tree of the garden,” except of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” signifies free will in spiritual things; for all things in the garden signified spiritual things, for without free will in those a man can in no wise progress into light, that is, into the truths and goods of the church, and procure for himself life; for if he does not aim at and strive after this, he procures to himself death. [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 in 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.

29.III. The third state of the church, which is its decline and evening, and is called vastation, is described in the third chapter of Genesis by these words: The serpent became more subtle than any wild animal of the field, which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, Yea, wherefore hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And when the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the tree we may eat; only of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die the serpent said, Ye shall not die for God doth know that in the day wherein ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. The woman therefore saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to give understanding; therefore she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat and she gave to her husband with her, and he did eat (vers. 1-6). The decline from light to the shade of evening, that is, the falling away from wisdom and integrity, consequently, the state of vastation of this church, is described by these words, because man was made a “likeness of God” (by which is signified, in the entire appearance that he thinks those things which are of wisdom, and wills those things that are of love, from himself, as God does, see above, n. 26), he believed the serpent’s words, that if he should eat of that tree he would become as God, and thus also be God in knowing good and evil. By this “tree” is signified the natural man separated from the spiritual, which, when left to itself, does not believe otherwise. [2] Every man has a natural mind and a spiritual mind, distinct from each other like two stories of one house connected by stairs; in the upper story of which dwell the master and mistress with their children, but in the lower the men-servants and maid-servants, with other helpers. The spiritual mind in man from birth even to early childhood is closed, but after that first age it is opened step by step; for there is given to every man from birth the faculty, and afterwards the power, of procuring for himself steps by which he may ascend and speak with the master and mistress, and afterwards descend and execute their commands. This power is given him through the endowment of free will in spiritual things. Nevertheless no one can ascend to the upper story, by which is meant the spiritual mind, unless he eat of the trees of life in the garden of God. For by eating of these a man is enlightened and made whole, and conceives faith; and through the nourishment of their fruits he acquires the conviction that all good is from the Lord, who is the tree of life, and not the smallest portion from man; and yet by abiding together and operating together, hence by the Lord’s being in him and he in the Lord, he must do good of himself, but still be in the belief and confidence that it is not from himself but from the Lord. [3] If a man believe otherwise, he does what appears like good, in which there is evil inwardly, because there is merit; and this is eating of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, among which dwells the serpent, in the dreadful persuasion that he is as God, or else that there is no God, but that Nature is what is called God, and that he is composed of the elements thereof. Furthermore, those eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who love themselves and the world above all things; but those eat of the trees of life who love God above all things and the neighbor as themselves. Those also eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who hatch out canons for the church from their own intelligence, and afterwards confirm them by the Word; but on the other hand those who procure for themselves canons for the church by means of the Word, and afterwards confirm them by intelligence, eat of the trees of life. Those also who teach truths from the Word and live wickedly eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil; but those eat of the trees of life who live well and teach from the Word. Universally speaking, all eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who deny the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word, inasmuch as the Lord is the Tree of Life and the Word, from whom the church is a “garden in Eden at the east.”

30.The spiritual man is an erect man, who with his head looks to heaven above him and about him, and treads the earth with the soles of his feet. But the natural man separated from the spiritual is either like a man bent downwards, who nods with his head, and continually looks at the earth, and then at the steps of his own feet; or, he is like an inverted man, who walks on the palms of his hands, and lifts up his feet towards heaven, and by shakings and clappings of these performs worship. The spiritual man is like a rich man, who has a palace in which are dining rooms, bed chambers, and banquet halls, the walls of which are continuous windows of crystalline glass, through which he sees the gardens, fields, flocks, and herds which also belong to him, and with the sight and use of which he is daily delighted. But the natural man, separated from the spiritual is also like a rich man, who has a palace containing chambers, the walls of which are continuous planks of rotten wood, which sheds around a fatuous light, wherein appear images of pride from the love of self and the world, like molten images of gold, in the middle, and of silver at the sides, before which he bends the knee like an idolater. Again, the spiritual man, in himself, is actually like a dove as to gentleness, like an eagle as to the sight of his mind, like a flying bird of paradise as to progression in spiritual things, and like a peacock as to adornment from spiritual things. But on the contrary the natural man separated from the spiritual is like a hawk pursuing a dove, like a dragon devouring the eyes of an eagle, like a fiery flying serpent at the side of a bird of paradise, and like a horned owl beside a peacock. These comparisons are made that they may be as optical glasses whereby the reader may more closely contemplate what the spiritual man is in itself, and the natural man in itself. But the case is altogether different, when the spiritual man by its spiritual light and spiritual heat is inwardly in the natural; then both constitute one, just like effort in motion, and will (which is living effort) in action, and like appetite in taste, and like the sight of the mind in the sight of the eye, and still more evidently like the perception of a thing in cognition, and the thought of it in speech.

31.IV. The fourth state of this church, which was its end or night and is called consummation, is also described by these words, in the third chapter of Genesis: Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, therefore I was afraid. Then Jehovah said, Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat of it? And the man said, The woman whom thou hast given with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, Wherefore hast thou done this? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I did eat. Then Jehovah God cursed the serpent, and afterwards the woman, and after her the man. After which, Jehovah God sent the man forth from the garden of Eden to till the earth from whence he was taken (Gen. 3:9-23). From the literal or historical sense of the description of Adam’s life, it is manifest that he was cursed because he believed the serpent that he should be as God; and he who believes this, at length does not acknowledge God. And as the natural man separated from the spiritual is in such a belief in heart, however differently he may talk with his mouth, therefore after he from spiritual became natural, this latter was cursed and it was cursed as to its sensual, its voluntary, and its intellectual; for its sensual is signified by the “serpent,” its voluntary by the “woman,” and its intellectual by the “man”; these three were cursed, because the one follows the other. (In Arcana Coelestia, every single expression, and every meaning of the expressions, are laid open by the spiritual sense, which has been revealed to me by the Lord; which explanation, being published, may be consulted.)

32.After this curse, the fourth state of this church, which was its state of night in spiritual things, and is called consummation, is described by the expulsion of the man from the garden “to till the ground from whence he was taken,” by which is meant that the innocence, integrity, and wisdom in which he was while he was spiritual were lost; consequently that he was cast down from heaven, that is, dissociated from the angels, just as we read of the “dragon”: The great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, was cast down out of heaven, where he fought with Michael and his angels, to the earth; and his angels were cast down with him (Rev. 12:9).

33.What person of sound mind is there who cannot see, that, by those things which are related of Adam are not meant any states of the first formed man, but states of the church? As, for example, that God placed two trees in the midst of the garden, from the eating of one of which man had eternal life, and from the other of which he had eternal death; and that He made the latter “good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired for giving understanding” (Gen. 3:6), thus as if it were to fascinate their souls; also, that He admitted the serpent, and permitted it to speak deceitful words to the woman in the presence of her husband who was the image and likeness of God, and suffered them to be ensnared by its flatteries and craft; as also why He did not provide, because He foresaw that they, and the whole human race from them, should not fall into the damnation of his curse; for we read in the orthodox books of Christians: That, in consequence of this original sin, “in place of the lost image of God, there is in man a most inward, most wicked, most profound, inscrutable, ineffable corruption of his whole nature, and of all his powers,” and that it is the root of all actual evils (Formula Concordiae, p. 640); and that God the Father averted that universal damnation from His face, and sent His Son into the world, who might take it on Himself, and thus appease Him; besides many other things which are inconsistent with God in the sight of everyone. [2] Who, from the particulars above-mentioned, understood in their historical sense, would not with reason conclude, to use comparisons, that it would be like a person who gives his dependent a most fruitful field, and in it digs a pit, which he covers over with boards that fall inwards at the touch of a hand or foot; and, in the midst, places upon a stand a harlot clothed in purple and scarlet, holding in her hand a golden cup (like her in Revelation, 17:4), who, by her blandishments allures the man to herself, and so brings it to pass that he falls into the pit and is drowned? Would it not, indeed, be like one who gives a present to his friend of a luxuriant field of grain, and in the midst thereof conceals snares, and sends out a siren who, with the allurement of song and of a sweet voice, entices him to that place, and causes him to be entangled in the snare, from which he is unable to extricate his foot? Yea, to use a further comparison, it would be like a person who should introduce a noble guest into his house in which there are two dining rooms, and tables in each of them, at one of which are seated angels, and at the other evil spirits, on which latter table are cups of sweet but poisoned wine, and dishes on which are preparations of food containing aconite; and who should permit the evil spirits there to represent the revels of Bacchus, and the antics of buffoons, and entice them to those goblets and banquets. [3] But, my friend, the things related of Adam, of the garden of God, and of the two trees therein, appear under quite a different aspect when spiritually comprehended, that is, unfolded by the spiritual sense; then it is clearly seen that, by “Adam,” as a type, is meant the most ancient church; and the successive states of that church are described by the vicissitudes of his life. For a church in the beginning is like a man created anew, who has a natural and a spiritual mind, and by degrees from spiritual becomes natural, and at length sensual, who believes nothing but what the senses of the body dictate. And such a man appears in heaven like a person sitting on a beast which turns its head back, and with its teeth bites, tears, and mangles the man sitting upon it. But the truly spiritual man appears in heaven also like a person sitting on a beast, but on a gentle one, which he governs with a gentle rein and also with a nod.

34.V. The fifth state of this church was the separation of the good from the evil, which was the Last Judgment on all who were of that church. This state is described by the “flood,” in which all the wicked who remained perished; and by “Noah and his sons,” by whom are meant all the good that were saved. The end of the Most Ancient Church, represented by “Adam,” is described in the sixth chapter of Genesis by these words: When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied in the world, and moreover every imagination of his heart only evil every day, it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth. Therefore Jehovah said, I will blot out man whom I have created from upon the faces of the earth; only Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah (Gen. 6:5-8). But the Last Judgment upon them is described by “the flood.” It is described by a “flood” for the reason that “waters” in the Word signify truths, and in the opposite sense falsities. Truths are signified by the waters of a fountain, the waters of a river, the waters of rain, and by the waters of the washings in time past, and the waters of baptism at this day. That correspondence arises from the circumstance that truths purify man’s soul from uncleanness as waters do his body; hence they are called “living waters.” But in the opposite sense, by “waters” are signified falsities; but by impure waters, such as those of marshes, malodorous cisterns, urine, and sewage, in general by all hurtful and death-producing waters, therefore also by waters from an inundation of which man dies, consequently by the Noahian flood. [2] That falsities in a mass are described by “inundations,” may be evident from the following passages: Jehovah is causing to come up upon them the waters of the river (Euphrates) strong and many it shall pass through Judah, it shall inundate, it shall pass through, it shall reach even to the neck (Isa. 8:7, 8). By the “waters of the river Euphrates,” are signified reasonings from falsities, because by Assyria, whose river it was, reasoning is signified. The spirit of Jehovah, like an inundating stream, shall divide in two even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity (Isa. 30:28, 30). By “an inundating river” here in like manner is signified reasoning from falsities. Behold waters are rising up out of the north, which are like an inundating stream, and shall inundate the land and the fullness thereof (Jer. 47:2). Here the Philistines are treated of, by whom are meant those who are not in charity, and hence not in truths; the falsities of these are signified by “the waters coming up from the north,” and the devastation of the church in consequence thereof, by “an inundating stream that shall inundate the land and the fullness thereof;” “the land” is the church, and its “ fullness” all things of it. Say unto those who daub what is unfit, There shall be an inundating rain, in which hail-stones shall fall upon you (Ezek. 13:11, 13). The “daubing of what is unfit” is the confirmation of falsity, and “hail-stones” are falsities. In an overrunning inundation He shall make a consummation of the place thereof, and thick darkness shall pursue His enemies (Nah. 1:8). By “the inundation” which shall consummate, is signified the falsification of truth, and by “thick darkness,” truths themselves in the night. Ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have we made a vision when the scourge of inundation shall pass through, it shall not come unto us we have made a lie our trust, and in falsity we will hide (Isa. 28:15). Here “inundation” manifestly stands for destruction by falsities; for it is said that they placed confidence in “a lie,” and that they would hide in “falsity.” After sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; then the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations (Dan. 9:26). [3] These things are concerning the Christian Church that was to come, in which the worship of the Lord would perish; which is meant by “Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself”: that it would perish by falsifications, is meant by “the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations;” “desolation” is that falsification. Hence it is that after the Lord spoke of “the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet,” and of the “consummation of the age” thereby, He said, that: His coming would be as in the days when the flood came, and took them all away (Matt. 24:15, 39). The drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the sea Suph (Exod. 14), means in the spiritual sense destruction by falsities, has been demonstrated in the Arcana Coelestia, in the explanation of that chapter.

35.Since the churches in the Christian world, both the Roman Catholic Church and those separated from it, which are named after their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, derive all sin from Adam and his transgression, it is permissible to subjoin here something about the sources whence sins are inherited; for these sources are as many as there are fathers and mothers in the world. That inclinations, aptitudes, and propensities to evils are derived from these, is manifest in light from the testimonies of experience, and also from the assent of reason. Who does not know, from the collective suffrages of experience, that there is a general likeness of minds, and hence of manners and countenances, from parents in the children and children’s children, even to a certain posterity? Who cannot thence infer that original sins are from them? The notion suggested to everyone, when he looks at the countenances and manners of brothers and relatives in families, causes him to know and acknowledge this. [2] What reason, then, is there for deducing the origin of all evils from Adam and his seed? Is there not equal reason for deducing it from parents? Does not the seed of these similarly propagate itself? To deduce from Adam’s seed alone the allurements from which and according to which the spiritual forms of the minds of all men in the universe exist, would be like deriving birds of every wing from one egg, also beasts of every nature from one seed, and trees of every kind of fruit from one root. Is there not an infinite variety of men? one like a sheep, another like a wolf? one like a kid, another like a panther? one like a tamed carriage horse before a carriage, another like an untamable wild ass before it? one like a playful calf, another like a voracious tiger? and so on. Whence has each his peculiar disposition but from his father and his mother? Why then from Adam? by whom nevertheless is described in a representative type the first church of this earth, as has been already shown? Would not this be like deriving from one stock deeply hidden in the earth a plantation of trees of every kind and use, and from a single plant shrubs of every degree of value? Would that not also be like deriving light from the darkness of the ages and of histories, and like unravelling the thread of a knot that cannot be untied? Why not rather from Noah, “who walked with God” (Gen. 6:9), and “whom God blessed” (Gen. 9:1), and from whom alone, surviving with his three children, “the whole earth was overspread”? (Gen. 9:19.) Would not the hereditary qualities of the generations from Adam be extirpated, as if drowned by a flood? [3] But, my friend, I will open the true source of sins. Every evil is conceived of the Devil as a father, and is born of atheistical faith as a mother; and on the other hand, every good is conceived of the Lord as a father, and is born of saving faith in Him as a mother. The generations of all goods in their infinite varieties among men are from no other origin than from the marriage of the Lord and the church; and, on the contrary, the generations of all evils among them in their varieties, are from no other origin than from the interaction of the Devil with a profane congregation. Who does not know, or may not know, that a man must be regenerated by the Lord, that is, created anew, and that so far as this is effected so far he is in goods? Hence this follows: that so far as a man is unwilling to be generated anew or created anew, so far he takes up and retains the evils implanted in him from his parents. This is what lies concealed in the first precept of the Decalogue: I am a zealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hold Me in hatred, and doing mercy unto thousands who love Me and do My commandments (Exod. 20:5, 6; Deut. 5:9, 10).

36.VI. The sixth state of the men of this church, which was the elevation of the faithful to God after the Last Judgment, from whom a new heaven was formed, and the removal of the unfaithful from God from whom a new hell was formed. In the preceding propositions (from n. 10-13 and from n. 14-17), it was explained that after consummation, a Last Judgment was executed upon all who were of the four churches above named, and after this a new heaven and a new hell formed from them, and thus that there have been in this earth four judgments upon its inhabitants, and four heavens and hells formed from them; and it has been granted me to know, that both those heavens and those hells are so entirely separated from each other, that one can by no means pass out of his own into that of another. All these heavens have been described in the work on Conjugial Love; and, as the spiritual origin of love truly conjugial is from no other source than the marriage of the Lord and the church, thus from love of the Lord towards the church and of the church to the Lord (as was shown in that work from n. 116-131); and, as the most ancient people were in both these loves so long as they retained in themselves the image of God, therefore, I will transcribe from that work the following things respecting that heaven, to which I was at the time then granted admission; which are as follow:

37.“Once when I was meditating on conjugial love, the desire seized my mind of knowing what that love had been with those who lived in the Golden Age, and what it was afterwards in the succeeding ones called Silver, Copper and Iron. And, as I knew that all who lived well in those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord that it might be permitted me to converse with them and be instructed. “And, lo! an angel stood by me, and said, `I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion; and first I will lead and accompany you to those who lived in the first era or Age, which is called the Golden.’ (The Golden Age is the same as the age of the Most Ancient Church, which is meant by `the head of good gold,’ on the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream (Dan. 2:32), of which we have spoken before.) The angel said, `The way to them is difficult; it lies through a dense forest, which no one can traverse unless a guide be given him by the Lord.’ [2] “I was in the spirit, and girded myself for the way; and we turned our faces to the east; and in going along, I saw a mountain, whose summit towered beyond the region of the clouds. We crossed a great desert, and reached a forest crowded with various kinds of trees, and dark by reason of the density of them, of which the angel informed me beforehand. But that forest was intersected by many narrow paths. The angel said that these were so many windings of error, and that unless the eyes were opened by the Lord, and the olive trees girt about with vine tendrils seen, and the steps directed from olive tree to olive tree, the traveler would stray into Tartarus. This forest is of such a nature, to the end that the approach may be guarded; for no other nation but a primeval one dwells on that mountain. [3] “After we entered the forest, our eyes were opened, and we saw here and there olive trees entwined with vines, from which hung bunches of grapes of a dark blue color, and the olive trees were arranged in perpetual circles; wherefore, we circled around and around according as they came into view; and at length we saw a grove of lofty cedars, and some eagles on their branches. When he saw these, the angel said, `Now we are on the mountain, not far from its summit.’ “And we went on, and lo! Behind the grove was a circular plain, where male and female lambs were feeding, which were forms representative of the state of innocence and peace of those on the mountain. “We passed through this grove, and lo! There were seen many thousands of tabernacles to the front and on each side, in every direction, as far as the eye could reach. And the angel said, `Now we are in the camp where dwell the armies of the Lord Jehovih, for so they call themselves and their habitations. These most ancient people, while they were in the world, dwelt in tabernacles; for which reason they also dwell in them now.’ But I said, `Let us bend our way to the south, where the wiser of them dwell, that we may meet someone with whom we may enter into conversation.’ [4] “On the way, I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at the door of their tabernacle; but as we drew near, they were seen as men and women of a medium height. And the angel said, `All the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a distance like infants, because they are in the state of innocence, and infancy is the appearance of innocence.’ “On seeing us, these men ran towards us, and said, `Whence are you, and how have you come hither? Your faces are not of the faces of those belonging to this mountain.’ “But the angel replied, and told the means by which we obtained access through the wood, and the reason of our coming. “On hearing this, one of the three men invited and introduced us into his tabernacle. The man was clothed in a mantle of a hyacinthine color, and a tunic of white wool; and his wife was dressed in a crimson robe, and under it, had a tunic about the breast of fine embroidered linen. [5] “But, since there was in my thought the desire of knowing about the marriages of the most ancient people, I looked at the husband and the wife by turns, and observed as it were a unity of their souls in their faces; and I said, `You two are one.’ “And the man answered, `We are one; her life is in me, and mine in her. We are two bodies, but one soul. There is between us a union like that of the two tents in the breast, which are called the heart and the lungs; she is the substance of my heart, and I am her lungs; but because by heart we here mean love, and by lungs wisdom (we understand the latter by the former on account of their correspondence) she is the love of my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love. Hence, as you said, there is the appearance of the unity of souls in our faces. Hence, it is as impossible to us here to look upon the wife of a companion in lust, as it is to look at the light of our heaven from the shade of Tartarus.’ “And the angel said to me, `You hear now the speech of these angels, that it is the speech of wisdom, because they speak from causes.’ During this conversation, I saw a great light on a hill among the tabernacles, and I asked, ‘Whence is that light?’ “He said, ‘From the sanctuary of our tabernacle of worship.’ “And I enquired whether it was allowed to approach; and he said that it was allowed. Then I drew near, and saw the tabernacle without and within, exactly according to the description like the Tabernacle which was built for the sons of Israel in the desert, the form of which was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:40; 26:30). I also asked, `What is there within its sanctuary, whence there is so great a light?’ “And he answered, `There is a tablet, on which is written, The covenant between the Lord Jehovih and Heaven.’” He said no more. “Then I also questioned them about the Lord Jehovih, whom they worship; and I said, `Is He not God the Father, the Creator of the universe?’ “And they replied, `He is; but we by the Lord Jehovih, understand Jehovah in His Human; for we are not able to look upon Jehovah in His inmost Divinity, except through His Human.’ And then they explained what they meant, and also what at this day they mean, by: The seed of the woman trampling the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15); namely, that the Lord Jehovih would come into the world, and redeem and save all who believed in Him, and who hereafter should believe. “When we had finished this conversation, the man ran to his tabernacle, and returned with a pomegranate, in which was an abundance of golden seeds, which he presented to me, and I brought it away: this was a sign that we had been with those who lived in the Golden Age.” [See the work on Conjugial Love, n. 75.] For an account of the heavens of the remaining churches, which succeeded the Most Ancient in their order, see in the same work on Conjugial Love (n. 76-82).

38.The hell of those who were from the Most Ancient Church, is more atrocious than all other hells. It consists of those who in the world believed themselves to be as God, according to the deceitful utterance of the serpent (Gen. 3:5); and those are deeper in that hell who, from the fantasy that God had transfused His Divinity into men, persuaded themselves that they altogether were gods, and so that there was no longer a God in the universe. In consequence of that direful persuasion, a stinking smoke is exhaled from that hell, which infects the adjacent places with so baleful a contagion, that when anyone approaches, he is at first seized with such a mad delirium, that presently, after some convulsive struggles, he seems to himself to be in the agonies of death. I saw a certain one, in the vicinity of that place, lying as it were dead; but, on being removed thence, he revived. That hell lies in the middle region at the south, surrounded with ramparts, and on which stand some who shout out in a loud stentorian voice, “Approach no nearer.” I have heard from the angels who are in the heaven above that hell, that the evil demons there appear like serpents twisted into inextricable folds, which is a consequence of their vain devices and incantations, by which they deluded the simple into admitting that they are gods, and that there is no God beside them. The ancients, who wove all things into fables, meant these by the “giants,” who besieged the camp of the gods, and whom Jupiter cast down by his thunderbolts and thrust under the fiery mountain Etna, and who were called “Cyclopses.” They also called the hells of these, “Tartarus,” and the “pools of Acheron;” and the deeps there, “Styx,” and those who dwelt there, “Lernaean Hydras,” and so forth.