A NEW CHURCH

It was foretold in the Apocalypse (XXI, XXII) that at the end of the former Church a New Church was to be instituted, in which this would be the chief teaching:  that God is One in Person as well as in Essence, in Whom is the Trinity, and that that God is the Lord.  This Church is what is there meant by the New Jerusalem, into which only he can enter who acknowledges the Lord alone as God of Heaven and earth.

—­Divine Providence, n. 263

The descent of the New Jerusalem cannot take place in a moment, but becomes a fact as the falsities of the former Church are removed.  For what is new cannot enter where falsities have previously been engendered, unless these are eradicated; which will take place with the clergy, and so with the laity.

—­True Christian Religion, n. 784

THE ULTIMATE GOAL

Were it received as a principle, that love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor are what the whole Law hangs on and are what all the Prophets speak of, and thus are the essentials of all doctrine and worship, then the mind would be enlightened in innumerable things in the Word, which otherwise lie hidden in the obscurity of a false principle.  In fact, heresies would be scattered then, and out of many one Church would come to be, however the doctrines flowing therefrom or leading thereto, and the rituals, might differ.  Were the case so, all men would be governed as a single human being by the Lord; for all would be as members and organs of one body, which, dissimilar in form and function though they are, still have relation to one heart only, whereon they each and all depend.  Then, in whatever doctrine or outward worship one might be, he would say of another, “This man is my brother.  I see that he worships the Lord, and that he is a good man.”

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 2385

MEMORABLE SAYINGS

MEMORABLE SAYINGS

All religion has relation to life; and the life of religion is to do good.

Love in act is work and deed.

Heaven is a kingdom of uses.

No one who believes in God and lives well is condemned.

Shunning evils as sins is the mark of faith.

To resist one evil is to resist many; for every evil is united with countless evils.

If you wish to be led by the Divine Providence, employ prudence as a servant and attendant who faithfully dispenses his Lord’s goods.

Where men know doctrine and think according to it, there the Church may be; but where men act according to doctrine, there alone the Church is.

It is not the desire of an intelligent man to be able to confirm whatever he pleases; but to be able to see truth as truth, and falsity as falsity, and to confirm his insight, is the way of an intelligent man.