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4. FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD
obtainable from
N EW CHURCH PRESS LTD.
20 BLOOMSBURY WAY
LONDON, W.C.1
N OR TH
&
OF ENGLAND
N EW CHURCH HOUSE
34 JOHN DALTON STREET
MANCHESTER 2.

6. "Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you''..
INITIATION
Christianity involves many things, but
perhaps its most glorious expression is that
growing intimacy that begins to manifest
itself between the practising Christian and
his God-the Lord Jesus Christ. This
sense of intimacy, or atonement, which
comes from the actual living practice of
religion, is called in the New Church "conjunction"- the conjoining of oneself with
the Lord. In the New Church we have the
most clear teaching as to what this conjunction, or connection, with the Lord
means. It constitutes the very essence of
"joy'', and is what the Lord meant when
He said to His disciples : "These things
have I spoken unto you that my joy might
5

7. remain in you, and that your joy might be
full" (John 15: 11).
Another name for conjunction might be
"friendship", for friendship is indeed a
state of conjunction, or connection, or
atonement, between two persons. And it
varies according to the degree of friendship that has been achieved. There are
light, or casual friendships and close ones.
In the title above are reproduced some bf
the words that the Lord addressed to all
who would be His disciples, and those
words are these: "Ye are my friends if ye
do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends; for all things
that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you" (John 15: 14-15).
Wonderful and encouraging words, as
relevant today as they were at the moment
of utterance. They bear the impress of the
Lord's personal assurance. They are true.
6

8. With human friendship there exists a
state of equality and familiarity that cannot exist with God. When He is our Friend
-as He always is potentially- we can only
adore Him in a state of complete selfhumiliation and love. Yet He is our Friend
in a most wonderful and interior way. We
feel His joy in our hearts, sometimes
clearly and more often obscurely. But it
is His love coming down to us and remaining with us tangibly. Implied, then, in this
term "friend" is a state of warmth and
affection. To achieve it we must do what
the Lord commands. And then we shall
begin to enter into that state of real
humanity and life that the Lord intended
for us when He created mankind. But how
exactly does this process operate? What
are its effects upon us and how do they
come about?
Before anyone can be a friend he must
first be known. Something of his quality
and personality must be seen and under7

9. stood. Such knowledge lays the foundation
for the later warmer relationship referred
to as "friendship". In other words, an
introduction must be made. The first step
for the initiating Christian, therefore, is to
seek an introduction to God, that is, the
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And this
introduction is provided both in the Word
of God-where the Lord has expressed
Himself in fundamental and simple terms
-and in the Heavenly Doctrines of the
New Church which reveal the inner meaning of those fundamental terms in rational
light.
Emanuel Swedenborg, who was the
Lord's revelator for the New Church,
made known these Heavenly Doctrines in ·
the works "Arcana Coelestia", "Apocalypse Revealed", "Doctrine of the
Lord", "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture",
"Doctrine of Life", "Doctrine of Charity'',
"Heaven and Hell", "Divine Providence",
"The Divine Love and Wisdom" and "The
8

10. True Christian Religion"; to mention the
main works in which the Heavenly Doctrines are set forth. The last named work,
"The True Christian Religion", may be
said to summarise the whole complex of
New Church Doctrine revealed by the
Lord at His Second Advent, and referred
to in the Word by the "woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve
stars" (Revelation 12: 1). And this Doctrine teaches us about the Lord. By reading
it and inwardly digesting it in the mind,
through reflection, meditation and
thought, a real step will have been taken
in securing an introduction to the Lord.
Certain credentials, as it were, will have
been acquired in the form of some specific
idea or knowledge concerning the personality and nature of God.
However, this is only the beginning.
Knowing about God is not the same thing
as knowing God, or being friends with
9

11. Him. Friendship, as already mentioned,
implies love, which is far more than mere
knowledge about someone. Many men and
women knew about the Lord when He
lived in Palestine and some may have
learned a great deal about His personality;
yet they did not love Him. They were not
His friends even when He extended the
hand of friendship to them. We remember
the Pharisee named Simon who invited the
Lord to his house out of sheer curiosity;
and we remember the Lord's rebuke to
him for his lack of courtesy. While Mary
bathed His feet He said : "Simon, seest
thou this woman? I entered and thou
gavest . . . me no kiss : but this woman
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head
with oil thou didst not anoint: but this
woman hath anointed my feet with ointment" (Luke 7: 44). We remember, too,
the centurion whose faith was so strong
that the Lord was able to heal his servant
from a distance, and whose humility was
so great that he deemed himself unworthy
10

12. to receive the Lord under his roof, so that
the Lord turned to the Jews about Him
and exclaimed: "I say unto you I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel"
(Luke 7: 9). Simon the Pharisee, who was
well instructed in Judaic law and who
should have welcomed the Messiah with
gladness, only spurned Him. While a total
stranger, a Roman, humbly received the
Lord's hand of friendship, and received in
return one of the greatest compliments that
the Word records. His behaviour should
be the pattern of ours. No 'self-righteousness or complacence; just plain, honest
humility and love. But perhaps it is in
Mary herself, the sister of Lazarus, that we
find the perfect pattern for ourselves. She
made no pretence to the Lord and she
withheld nothing from Him. All that she
h ad was His.
In the work "Divine Providence" (No.
323) there' is this proposition: "The end of
creation is a heaven from the human race".
11

13. This continues in No. 325 with the next
proposition: "Hence it is from the Divine
Providence that every man is able to be
saved; and they are saved who acknowledge God and live well". And to match
these propositions revealed for the use of
the New Church there are these wonderful
words of the Lord in Matthew 11 : 29-30:
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye
shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke
is easy and my burden is light". There it is
for us to see. Friendship with God means.
a lo:vly heart and a life well lived in His
service.
The road is not an easy one, however,
and it would be foolish to believe that the
happy state of full friendship is attained
simply by wishing it to be so. First, as
mentioned earlier, there is the need to
understand something concrete about the
nature of God. What He is like. What He
expects of us. His purpose for Creation,
12

14. and our part in it. All these things are
important elements in our relationship
with the Divine Mind. If our friendship is
to be a perfect, or nearly perfect, one it is
essential that we shall be clear in our minds
as to what our Creator desires of us.
Otherwise we will be wasting our time and
His. Secondly, having understood, even if
imperfectly, what is expected of us we
must try to act up to that divine expectation- the "living well" part referred to in
paragraph No. 325 of "Divine Providence". It is scarcely necessary to say that
living well in this sense does not mean just
having a good time, in the conventional
sense. It means striving to live according
to those two great Commands which the
Lord enunciated in Matthew chapter 22,
verse 37, as follows: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind . . .
and . . . thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself". This is the sum of the true
Christian life, and as the Lord said to the
13

15. lawyer who questioned Him about this
very matter, "This do and thou shalt live"
(Luke 10: 28).
The Heavenly Doctrines give very precise teaching on this matter and it is as
well, therefore, to study them about it. But
we will give here only a brief glance at this
teaching, since space must forb id more. In
paragraph No. 326 of "Divine Providence"
there is this statement which is of supreme
importance: "The acknowledgement of
God causes a conjunction of God with
man, and of man with God; and a denial of
God causes disjunction". Here we see in
operation those subtle forces which guide
our destiny without our realisation- the
hand of providence at work. It matters
very much how we think about God
because it is as we think about Him that
He is able to be with us in our everyday
lives. He is always present with us, even
when we deny His reality. Were He not
we could not live a second of time. But
14

16. He is not then conjoined with us because
we do not desire it. In other words He
cannot be our Friend if we will not allow
Him to be so. The choice is ours entirely.
It is one of the qualities of the Lord that
no matter how much He may yearn for
our love He will never force us to give it to
Him. He yearned over Jerusalem, you may
remember, in the Gospel account of
Matthew, in which the Lord exclaimed:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest
the prophets and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gatherest her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not! " Terrible and
tragic words. And they are re-enacted in
countless human lives which have spurned
the Master's friendship and love in every
century, and especially so in this.
15

18. TAKING, UP THE CROSS
By studying the Heavenly Doctrines,
therefore, we will have made a thorough
beginning in our search for the Lord's
friendship. Our introduction to Him will
have been achieved, so to speak; for that
is exactly what has happened. Without
our realising it the Lord is leading us to
Him, by instilling into us this very desire
to know Him better. Yet we have freedom
to refuse to listen to this inner voice, if we
wish. And so it is from our own desire,
too, that we take this first important step
towards the Lord's out-stretched hand.
Knowledge of the Lord's personality
and wishes for us is obviously not enough,
however. We must practise· those wishes,
17

19. as we are commanded to do in the Word
itself: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15: 14); and
also, "He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me"
(John 14, v. 21). So there it is. No compromise with our convenience. If we wish
to be really the Lord's friends , instead of
mere intellectual acquaintances, we must
accept His terms. We must, in so many
words, take up our cross and follow Him ;
for He said to His disciples : " Whosoever
doth not bear his cross, and come after me,
cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14, v. 27).
There is no other way to the Lord's friendship than by the way of discipleship. For
the Lord calls us to be His disciples just
as He called Peter, James and John and
the other nine; just as He has called men
and women down the centuries; just as He
will call them in the myriad centuries still
to come. We must be absolutely clear
about this if we really desire the Lord's
friendship. It is not easy; yet it is abun1s

20. dantly worth while in the final happiness,
peace and vitality that it brings when in
His strength we have triumphed, and have
borne our cross after Him.
Bearing our cross means self-denial and
self-compulsion. No writer on this subject
would be honest if he were to pretend that
the process is necessarily a pleasant one at
first. When we have become well instructed in the Heavenly Doctrines we will
know that our hereditary human nature
constantly draws us away from the Lord
by tempting us to do things that are displeasing to Him. Put differently, this
human nature continually persuades us to
put ourselves before others in all things,
and that includes the Lord. There is no
need to give examples here since a little
honest reflection will soon provide them.
The point is that as soon as we have decided that the Lord's call to us should be
obeyed 'then we have also decided that
certain other steps have got to be carried
19

21. out. Self-denial and self-compulsion. We
must take as our watchword, shield and
buckler those simple and easily remembered truths of the Word in which the
Lord's desires of His disciples are simply
and clearly stated. Such truths as the
following illustrate the point:
"And God saw everything that he had
made, and behold, it was very good"
(Genesis 1, v. 31).
"Give ear, 0 ye heavens, and I will
speak; and hear, 0 earth, the words of my
mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
my speech shall distil as the dew, as the
small rain upon the tender herb, and as the
showers upon the grass; Because I will
publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye
greatness unto our God. He is the Rock,
his work is perfect: for all his ways are
judgement: a God of truth and without
iniquity, just and right is he" (Deuteronomy 32, v. 1-4).
20

22. "The Lord is my shepherd : I shall not
want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures : he leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake" (Psalm 23, v. 1-3).
"Fret not thyself because of evil-doers,
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut
down like the grass, and wither as the
green herb. Trust in the Lord and do
good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and
verily thou shalt be fed . . . The steps of a
good man are ordered by the Lord : and
he delighteth in his way. Though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down: for the
Lord upholdeth him with his hand .. . I
have seen the wicked in great power, and
spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not:
yea, I sought him, but he could not be
found. Mark the perfect man, and behold
the upright : for the end of that man is
21

23. peace" (Psalm 37, v. 1-3, 23-24, 35-37).
" I waited patiently for the Lord ; and he
inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit,
out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon
a rock, and established my goings. And he
hath put a new song in my mouth, even
praise unto our God : many shall see it and
fear, and shall trust in the Lord" (Psalm
40, v. 1-3).
"O sing unto the Lord a new song; for
he hath done marvellous things; his right
hand and his holy arm hath gotten himself the victory" (Psalm 98, v. 1).
"Like as a father pitieth his children, so
the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For
he knoweth our frame; he remembereth
that we are dust" (Psalm 103, v. 13-14).
"Behold, thou desirest truth in the
inward parts : and in the hidden part thou
22

24. shalt make me to know wisdom ... Hide
thy face from my sins, and blot out all
mine iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit
within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation; and uphold me with thy free
spirit ... For thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it: thou delightest not in
burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit: a broken and a contrite
heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise"
(Psalm 51, v. 6, 9-10, 12, 16-17).
"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to
the waters, and he that hath no money;
come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without
price. Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread? And your labour
for that which satisfieth not? Hearken
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in
fatness . . . Seek ye the Lord while he
may be found, call ye upon him while he
23

25. is near : Let the wicked fors ake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts :
and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him; and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55,
v. 1-2, 6-7).
"Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment,
and do justice: for my salvation is near
to come, and my righteousness to be
revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth
this . .. " (Isaiah 56, v. 1-2).
"Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord: though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient,
ye shall eat the good of the land . . ."
(Isaiah 1, v. 18).
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel, and with the house of
24

26. Judah ... I will put in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts; and will
be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man
his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more!" (Jeremiah 31, v. 31,
33-34).
"What mean ye that ye use this proverb
concerning the land of Israel, saying, The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge? As I live,
saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of
the father, so also the soul of the son is
mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
But if a man be just, and do that which is
lawful and right, ... hath walked in my
statutes, and hath kept my judgements, to
25

27. deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live,
saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 18, v. 2-5, 9).
"Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of
rivers of oil? . . . He hath showed thee,
0 man, what is good; and what doth the
Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God? " (Micah 6, v. 7-8).
The foregoing are but a few of the passages available in the Old Testament part
of the Word, yet they illustrate very well
the type of quotation that reveals those
, simple but foundation truths upon which
the whole of our spiritual life is based.
They prepare the way for the more complex development that lies ahead. They
are the seeds that grow from life into the
beautiful tree of faith with its many fruits
26

30. SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND THE
PRO·BLEM 0 F EVIL
1
So far, we have studied the main elemental basis upon which the state of
friendship with God rests. We have examined very briefly what that state implies.
We are now in a position to ask how that
state is brought about, and what steps
mark its progress. In other words, how
may we know when this happy relationship with the Lord is beginning to mark
our life?
There is no quick answer to this question. The Divine Providence has its own
secret ways of operating upon us; and the
Heavenly Doctrines make it clear that this
Providence is everywhere and in every29

31. thing. Were it not so the Lord could not
truly be described as Almighty and Omniscient, two of the many names ascribed to
Him in the Word. We read in Psalm 139:
"Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all
my ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue but lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest it
altogether. . . . Whither shall I go from
thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? ... "
The answer, of course, is that we can
never flee the Lord's presence. Wherever
we are, there is He; whether we are in Hell
or in Heaven. But while this belief is relatively simple to understand, the mind
demands a more rational approach to this
problem of the Divine Providence because
we are made as rational beings with the
power of thinking deeply about our environment. We want a well reasoned basis
for what we believe. And it is just here
30

32. that the Heavenly Doctrines revealed by
the Lord Himself through Swedenborg
can be of assistance to us. In these Doctrines, describing the Laws of the Divine
Providence, we are shown exactly how our
minds and souls are instructed and guided
towards an ever-deepening love of the
Lord. And this is as follows.
The initial introduction to the life of
Faith is made by the acquisition of the
basic and governing truths of religion
- such truths as are set forth in the Ten
Commandments, the essence of which is
beautifully summarised in Luke chapter
10: 27. Contrary to the opinion of many
nowadays these truths are not obsolete
but are fundamental to the Christian life.
There is nothing in modern humanist or
moral philosophy that is not more thoroughly taught in the Christian faith. And
the core of this teaching is found in the
Ten Commandments themselves! If we
despise the Commandments we despise the
31

33. whole of religion, because their essential
teaching is that we love both God and our
neighbour (Luke eh. 10, v. 27).
32

34. Evil and Sin :
The basic teaching of the Ten Commandments concerns the avoidance of Sin.
This is another name for Evil and means
simply the putting of evil into practice. We
often have evil thoughts which come from
our evil hereditary human nature, but
these do not make us sinners. We only sin
if we love these thoughts and foster them,
so that they really become a part of us.
It is important to note that in the Ten
Commandments there are eight negative
commands and two positive commandsthe third and fourth. This is because man,
at the beginning of his spiritual life, is in a
state of potential evil. That is to say, all
his basic inclinations are towards evil
33

35. rather than against it. This state of life is
caused by the Adamic state in him, or
proprial state derived from countless forbears. The word "proprial" is derived
from the Latin word Proprium, meaning
Selfhood or what is proper to Self. And
Swedenborg uses this word whenever he
wishes to describe man's own human
nature as distinct from the heavenly nature
which he receives from the Lord as a consequence of his regeneration.
The significance of the eight negative
commands of the Ten Commandments
becomes clear in the light of this fact,
because it is apparent that as a start to
the regenerate life man must first refrain
from doing evil. He cannot yet do good.
Insofar as he does refrain from doing evil,
that is sinning, to that extent does he come
into the capacity of doing good.
The Lord taught that one cannot put
new wine into old bottles, by which He
34

36. meant that new truth does not generally
live happily with old truth which has
ceased to have relevance to the new age.
It could also mean that a new capacity for
doing good cannot come from the old state
of life before regeneration. It can only
come from a new heart and a new will. In
the work for the New Church entitled
"The True Christian Religion", paragraph
No. 330, we read:
"So far as a man shuns evil, he wills
good, because evil and good are opposites;
for evil is from hell and good from heaven;
therefore so far as a man avoids hell or
evil he approaches heaven and looks to
good. Consider eight of the commandments in this light : (i) So far as anyone
avoids worshipping other gods he worships the true God. (ii) So far as anyone
avoids taking the name of God in vain he
loves what is from God. (iii) So far as anyone shuns murder, hatred and revenge he
. wishes well to the neighbour". Refer also
35

37. to paragraph No. 456.
The point of all this is simply that before
true good can be done sin must be avoided
in all its forms. And these forms are many,
for evil resides in all levels of thought and
conduct relative to natural life. For the
Lord taught that even when a man only
desires to do evil but fears to carry it out
because of the consequences, he is guilty
of it. The fact that he has not dared to
commit the act itself merely makes it less
grievous to his soul. We may call this type
of evil "intended evil", such as covetousness, envy, malicious thoughts about
others, and so on. Provided we reject the
thoughts as soon as they present themselves no harm is done, but if we nurse
them lovingly then we are making them a
part of ourselves and they attract other
more evil thoughts, until our state of life
becomes extremely unhappy, for we shall
then bring to our side evil spirits whose
delight is to infuse all kinds of insane lusts
36

38. into our hearts-according to the law "like
attracts like".
It may be asked at this point why the
Lord permits Evil to exist at all since it
is contrary to His way of life. And the
answer must be that Evil exists because
man himself desires it to exist. The Lord
gave man a precious gift when He created
him, namely, the gift of freedom. And
freedom is nothing if it cannot be indulged.
Were the Lord, therefore, to deny to man
the right to sin He would be defaulting
on His Own condition that man should be
free to choose his own way of life. Obviously such a fault cannot be ascribed to
the Lord, and so the fact remains that if
man insists upon sinning he has· the right
to do so; although it may be apposite to
remark that the consequences of a disorderly life are terrible indeed if pursued
relentlessly. Though Hell is pleasant to
those who inhabit its dark regions it is no
paradise in real terms, for its delights are
37

39. completely illusory, and the "happiness"
of its denizens a mere phantasy of delirious minds.
The chief enemy that we have to fight,
therefore, is the state of Original Sin
brought about by the Fall of mankind
many thousands of years ago. We have but
the scantiest knowledge of man's earliest
beginnings mainly contained in myths and
legends. But in the light of the Writings
for the New Church we know that man
began in a state of perfect order, a true
image of his Creator. As the millenia
passed, however, he began to recede from
this perfect order and to desire the things
of the world to the exclusion of those of
the spirit, until the time came when he was
almost destroyed by his own evil. This
unhappy story is the true meaning of the
expulsion of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden-an allegory enshrining
Divine Truth.
38

40. To combat this new state of things the
Lord gave man a divided Will and Understanding, so that he could think evil without automatically willing it. This separation enables the evil will into which man
is born to be checked in its effects, through
having its intentions dispassionately inspected and analysed by the separated
Understanding faculty, which is able to
act as from a certain will-power of its own.
Thus a man can do four things; he can
(i) will what is evil, (ii) understand that
what he wills is evil and (iii) desist from
what he wills that is evil, and (iv) do good
from a regenerate will which is quite
separate from the "old" will. Thus he
learns gradually to forsake the life of selfishness, to love God and to become the
friend of God.
39

41. Influx fro·m Heoven and from Hell:
Inseparable from this study is the
phenomenon of Influx. The term "influx"
means to inflow, that is, to flow into
something-in this case the human mind.
Creation comprises two creations, in a
sense, the Spiritual creation and the
Material creation. Both work in harmony
with one another, the spiritual flowing into
the material. Without the spiritual world
the material world could not exist, for the
spiritual is the vital link between the
Creator and the physical universe. It is
into the spiritual universe that we come
after the death of the physical body, to
continue in it to all eternity. It is therefore
very important that we should know about
the existence of the spiritual world, since
without this knowledge we can hardly
understand the manner in which states of
evil in ourselves attract to us spirits who
inhabit the spiritual world. The same rule
40

42. applies to states of good, which attract to
us the aid of angels acting as the Lord's
ministers.
We are spiritual beings, therefore,
created to receive the Lord's Life and in
"The True Christian Religion", paragraph
No. 364, we read the interesting statement
that:
"God could not create another being
like Himself; had this been possible there
would have been as many gods as men .
.And He could not create life, just as light
cannot be created; but He could create
man a form receptive of life, as He created
the eye a form receptive of light. Also God
could not and cannot divide His essence
that being one and indivisible. Since, therefore, God alone is life, it follows that it is
by His life that a man is vivified . . ."
Our physical bodies are necessary for us
to live in the universe of matter. But within
41

43. both is the universe of tne spirit. Thus
within our physical body is the indestructible spiritual body, made of real spiritual
substances that enable it to exist perpetually in the spiritual universe. Being vessels,
then, we receive the Lord's life just as any
vessel receives water. But besides receiving
influx from the Lord we also receive a
different influx from the myriads of spirits
who inhabit the spiritual world, according
to the type of person we are. If our lives
are orderly and characterised by a love of
what is good, we shall be in association
with good spirits whose general character
is like ours; and the converse is also true.
Swedenborg describes it as follows, in
"The True Christian Religion", paragraph
No. 455:
"Hell, owing to the nature of its lusts,
delights in every kind of evil, that is, in
hatred, revenge, murder, depredation,
theft, abuse, blasphemy, the denial of God
and the profanation of the Word. In man's
42

44. lusts these lie concealed because he does
not reflect upon them .... But the delights
of heaven are those of love of the neighbour and of God. Since the delights of
hell are the opposite of those of heaven,
there is a great gap between them into
which the delights of heaven enter by
influx from above and those of hell by
influx from below. Here, midway between
heaven and hell, is man, while he is in the
world, in order that he may be in equilibrium and thus at liberty to turn either to
heaven or to hell. This gap is what is
meant by the 'great gulf fixed between
heaven and hell' (Luke 16, v. 26)."
Good affections flow into man's higher
self, his spiritual self, from the Lord
through heaven, and evil affections flow
into his corrupt will from the hells. A state
of deadly warfare exists between the two.
The receptacle of the former lies in the
Understanding faculty which is in contact
with our spiritual self. In this the Lord
43

45. stores from our earliest infancy states of
innocence which can be called into action
whenever the Lord requires them. These
good states are essential to our forward
progress, because without them we should
have nothing in us that was good. These
states of good are referred to in the Writings for the New Church as Remains,
because they are the remnants of our childhood which we carry forward into our
adult life under the Lord's guiding Providence. They are also referred to as the
Remains of Innocence, for that is what
they are. They are not ours at all, but a
kind of safe deposit stored up in us by the
Lord against the "rainy day" to come,
when we are set upon the road of regeneration and suffer the series of temptations
necessary for our ultimate perfecting. In
other words, the Lord establishes His Own
bridgehead in our minds from which He
can then persuade us to fight "from ourselves"-for that is the appearanceagainst the foes of our own household. It
44

46. is a fundamental truth of heaven that
throughout all our temptation-combats
the Lord alone fights for us and succours
us, yet it always appears as if we did all the
fighting. Nevertheless it is necessary that
we should co-operate to the full with the
Lord and play our part by shunning evils
of all kinds as sins against Him.
It should be emphasized once again that
we are not condemned for evils over which
we have no responsibility, but only for
those which we make our own by desiring
them and acting from them. We are not
to blame for the fact that we are born with
an evil will-faculty from our forbears, any
more than they were for theirs. But we are
to blame for acts which we do knowing
that they are wrong.
While upon earth, then, we are in equilibrium between Heaven and Hell, and it is
in our power to move nearer the one or
the other, as we choose. Although the Lord
45

47. strives to persuade us by every lawful
means to choose the life of Heaven, He
never compromises our basic freedom of
choice. As already explained, this freedom
is the sacred right with which He endowed
us at our creation and which makes us men
as distinct from animals. We are predestined by our very birthright to Heaven, but
we are not compelled to go there if, by our
own preference we choose Hell. As we
make our bed so must we lie upon it.
Reformation (and Swedenborg's role) :
Since our theme is Friendship with God
we shall concern ourselves only with the
steps which follow logically upon a choice
made in favour of Heaven and the Lord,
namely, the path of regeneration. Reformation is the name given by Swedenborg
to the first stage of the journey, in which
4(j

48. we acquaint ourselves with a thorough
knowledge of the way we wish to go. It
concerns, at this first stage, the Understanding alone, since the Will is corrupt
and utterly useless to us for regenerative
purposes. Our first task, as already intimated, is to find out by reading and study
what sort of life it is that the Lord expects
of us; that is, to discover just what is meant
by the injunction "to take up our cross and
follow Him". We come to religion with
all kinds of false ideas and the initial duty
must be to discard them and substitute
them with true concepts of the Deity. This
is the stage of reforming our beliefs, since
if we do not do this at the very outset we
are improperly equipped for the journey.
It is as if we got a map of a country that
we were about to visit. The path of reformation and regeneration is exactly the
same. There is only one way to God and
in order to find it we must follow His
instructions about the road very carefully.
And this is not really difficult if we take
47

49. the trouble to read them properly and act
accordingly.
The first task, therefore, is to read the
Word of God, the Sacred Scriptures, in
the light of the Heavenly Doctrines revealed through Swedenborg by the Lord,
so that we may be well informed as to what
is expected of us. A blind trust is always
necessary when treading a way that is
foreign to us, but we need not be completely blind. In the Heavenly Doctrines
much is revealed concerning the nature of
God and of His Divine Providence. We
are informed about the nature of the
spiritual world, in the work "Heaven and
Hell", both of which Swedenborg describes in great detail. In the work "Divine
Providence" the laws which govern man's
spiritual development are set forth; and in
the work "Divine Love and Wisdom" the
nature of God and of His creation is
described in detail. Many other works
could be cited, but the student who is keen
4~

50. will find them out for himself. The crowning work, however, is "The True Christian
Religion", which is one of the chief works
comprising the revelation for the New
Church. It will have been noticed that the
quotations given in this study are taken
from this particular work.
The newcomer to the New Church may
well ask what are Swedenborg's bona
fides. One of the best ways of testing any
revelation is to read it for oneself. Does it
fit the facts that it describes? If it does,
then it is most probably true. Most of those
who have come into the New Church from
"outside" believe this to be the case, but
a few have turned away again to other
beliefs. That is their right, and no New
Churchman-that is, member of the New
Christian Church or Church of the New
Jerusalem-would dispute this right. It is
sacred to each individual.
But Swedenborg had several things to
49

51. say about the revelation which he was
instrumental in providing. One of the most
important statements that he made is as
follows:
"The Lord cannot manifest Himself in
person, and yet He has foretold that He
will come and found a new church, which
is the New Jerusalem. It follows that He
will do this by means of a man who can
not only understand the doctrines of this
church but can also have them printed and
published. I solemnly declare that the
Lord has manifested Himself to me His
servant, and sent me on this duty. He has
opened the sight of my spirit and thus
introduced me into the spiritual world; He
has permitted me to see the heavens and
the .hells, and to converse with angels and
spirits, and this now continually for many
years. Moreover, from the first day of that
call I have not receivecf instruction in the
doctrines of the new church from any
angel, but from the Lord alone while I
50

52. have been reading the Word" (T.C.R.
para. No. 779).
Another statement explaining the whole
context of the new revelation is as follows :
"Jehovah God descended and assumed
human nature for the purpose reducing
to order all things in heaven and in the
church; for at that time (First Advent) the
power of the devil, that is of hell, prevailed
over the power of heaven, and on earth the
power of evil prevailed over the power of
good; consequently a total destruction was
at hand, and threatened every creature.
This impending destruction Jehovah God
removed by means of His humanity and
thus redeemed both angels and men. It is
evident from this that unless the Lord had
come into the world no one could have
been saved. The same is true today; unless
the Lord had come again (Second Advent,
1757 A.D.) into the world no -flesh could
have been saved". (T.C.R. para. No. 121interpolations and italics the writer's).
51

53. With the culminating temptation-combat on the cross the Lord both glorified
Himself and reduced the hells to order so
that man could be preserved from total
destruction. At His Second Advent,
marked by the Last Judgement in the
spiritual world in the year 1757, the Lord
again restored the conjunction of Heaven
with the Church on earth through the
Word, or Sacred Scriptures. This connection with Heaven through the Word had
been broken by two false doctrinals invented by men in the Church on earth. The
first declared that the Godhead consists of
three Persons, each one of which is God.
This is the Trinity dogma held by most
Christian churches today. And the second
doctrinal, held by the Reformed Church,
taught that salvation is by :faith only and
not also by works of Charity. This doctrinal in effect denied the Word and reduced man to a state of complete spiritual
impotence. Swedenborg mentions other
false ideas such as that of Predestination
52

54. taught by Calvin; and the concept of papal
infallibility with the right of the Roman
Catholic Church to open or close Heaven
to whom it will. Such ideas as these had
reduced the whole Christian church to
spiritual bankruptcy by the middle of the
18th century so that it was then that the
Lord made His Second Advent, foretold
at His First Advent in Matthew chapter
24, verse 30. This verse speaks of the
Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds
of Heaven with power and great glory.
The "clouds" are the simple, natural truths
of the plain literal sense of the Word, while
the "glory" is the true inner meaning of
that literal sense interpreted according to
the Law of Correspondence, which governs the writing of the Word throughout.
In order, therefore, that the living truth
within the Word should be restored to
mankind, the Lord raised up a man,
Swedenborg, to reveal it afresh. This he
did, in a manner that has evoked both the
53

55. astonishment and the wonder of scholars
and of thinkers ever since. And with the
restoration of the Sacred Scriptures to
their former beauty through the new
revelation the New Jerusalem has begun
to descend to mankind as promised in the
Book of the Word, Revelation. In the
New Jerusalem the Lord is known as He
truly is-the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah,
Creator, Former of all, the One God.
There is no need for us to become deeply
immersed in the technicalities of this new
revelation beyond being clear that it is
from the Lord, being His Heavenly Doctrine revealed from the Word for the purpose of restoring the Word to mankind in
all its purity, power and glory. Had this
new revelation not been provided, and the
Lord not made His Second Advent, the
Word of God would have lost all its power
to unite men with God, and so the spiritual
life of the Church on earth would have
completely perished.
54

56. Our first duty, then, is to study the
Heavenly Doctrines carefully together
with the Word, in order to find out what
we must do to be saved. This process
equips our minds for the task of putting
the doctrine into practice. It is not necessary to attempt to absorb too much to
begin with, since this will only lead to confusion. But we should read conscientiously a little at a time and ask those
better informed than we are about any
points that arise which puzzle us. We will
never know all the answers and this is why
we should not hesitate to ask questions of
those, such as ministers or well-informed
laymen, who may be able to help us.
Besides our reading we will learn much
from attendance at worship and at doctrinal classes where the Heavenly Doctrines from the Word are expounded. And
as we learn the new truth we will also try
to put it into practice by living it. It is
basically simple enough, and as pointed
out earlier it is found in many parts of the
55

57. simple literal sense of the Word itself, such
as the famous passage from Micah :
"What doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?"
These are the foundations upon which
the regenerate life is based, and when we
begin to build upon them we find that they
are rock and proof against the worst that
can happen to us, for they are maintained
by the Lord Himself.
Regeneration:
When we have discovered the basic,
essential facts about the Lord and the Way
which He intends us to follow, we are in
a state of Reformation, such as we have
just been discussing. This concerns our
56

58. faculty of Understanding. But now we will
try to see what is happening in the other
part of us, the Will faculty. This, therefore,
concerns the state of Regeneration which
proceeds in the spirit hand in hand with
the other state described above.
Man is a rational being, which means
that he must think before he acts. Therefore, in the life ,of regeneration it is vitally
important that his mind should be well
equipped with truth so that good may be
conjoined with it. All things in creation
comprise a marriage of good with truth in
some form or other. Truth is the form of
good, and good is the essence of truth. This
is because the Lord Himself has these
qualities. His essence is Love which
expresses itself in the form of Wisdom, and
these two qualities again express themselves in Power or Use. The same applies
to man, except that he is not divine in himself but is a vessel of life only. However,
the general principle applies. His mind
57

59. comprises both good and truth as well as,
before regeneration, evil and falsity. In
the process of Reformation he learns truth
and in the process of Regeneration he
acquires good, which is adjoined to the
truth that he practises, though not to that
which he only keeps in his memory. The
distinction is most important. Only that
truth which is brought into the actual life
can acquire good and so become living in
man.
As already stated, this latter process
concerns the Will-faculty which governs
action. But at once we are up against a
great difficulty because our own Will is
defiled with hereditary corruption from
the Fall. We simply cannot of ourselves
do any good at all. Any good that we think
we can do contains within it the same corruption because our motives are invariably
suspect in some particular or other. In
other words, self-love comes into the picture at some point or other. This corrupss

60. tion, as mentioned before, is not our own
fault but it is a factor that has got to be
reckoned with. Nor is it our parents' fault.
It is the collective fault of the human race
upon this planet. Yet each generation adds
something of its own to the collective store
of evil so that it grows and grows with
time. That is why the two Advents of the
Lord were so necessary, since by means of
them the Lord established once and for all
the superiority of His Divine Power over
the worst that the Hells could do. The
Lord shackled them, as one would shackle
a mad bull or a maniac, yet without preventing them from expressing themselves
to some extent in the affairs of the world,
namely, to the extent necessary for the
continued development of man's spiritual
nature.
Another way of regarding the process
of regeneration would be to compare it
with gardening. To begin with the ground
to be cultivated is covered with briars,
59

61. bushes of all kinds and weeds. It is without any order, unkempt and thoroughly
useless as a garden, as it stands. So the
gardener begins by cutting down the vegetation that he does not want and by generally clearing the ground of weeds. The
same thing happens within the human
mind. First, wrong ideas are rejected
before correct ideas can be planted, although instead of calling it weeding it is
called "temptation". By temptation an old
unregenerate state is removed, like a weed,
and is replaced by a fresh new state, or
beautiful flower, beginning with those
states which are natural and external and
proceeding in due order to states which
are more interior, though still natural, for
it is only the natural part of man that has
been defiled by the Fall.
It is one of those sad things that at the
very beginning the path to good seems
dark and forbidding, while the path of evil
seems delightful and free. Our way along
60

62. the former seems hemmed in by restrictions of every kind-which is true-while
the other way is broad and apparently
devoid of any kind of prohibition. Our
Lord said:
"Enter ye in at the strait (narrow) gate :
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat: because strait is
the gate, and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it" (Matt. 7).
These words should make us think very
hard, for they are true. Swedenborg himself confirmed this fact and observed that
far more chose the way to Hell than to
Heaven. And the reason is possibly to be
found in the fact already alluded to,
namely, that the going at first is rather
hard and many prefer not to risk it Yet
there is no risk at all. All that is needed is
a firm trust in the Lord's saving power, in
61

63. His strong arm. Having determined to set
out on this narrow path we can be fully
assured that the Lord will sustain us and
help us to continue on our journey to Him.
Temptation:
Earlier the process of removing old evil
states and replacing them with fresh new
spiritual states was described as "temptation'', a process analogous to that of weeding and planting. And this is how the
human soul is regenerated. The Lord Himself progressed in exactly the same way
when He came upon the earth as a man.
By His temptations He changed His states
progressively from merely human states to
Divine-human states, until with the final
temptation of the Cross He made His
human nature completely Divine-human
and thus part of His Godhead.
62

64. In our case we do not exchange a human
state for a divine-human one, but we
exchange an imperfect human state for a
perfect human one. This is the main mechanism of regeneration which proceeds as
follows.
In the first instance the sphere of Hell
flows into our unregenerate self and induces unhealthy states of mind. When the
Lord considers that we are ready to enter
into a higher, better state He breathes His
Spirit into us more fully and arouses our
evil state to a condition of wakefulness.
This is to say we actually, and perhaps for
the first time, become fully aware of this
particular evil state. It comes upon us very
strongly and induces a sense of unhappiness and restlessness. It seems at the time
that there is no good in us at all and we
feel ourselves to be spiritually in a desert
-hot, dry and dusty, like the bones seen
by the prophet Ezekiel in vision (chapter
37). There is a sense of abandonment, as
63

65. if God had deserted us completely. That
is why the Lord cried out on the cross:
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
It is the same cry that is uttered with
varying intensity by everyone deemed
worthy to be tried in the fire of temptation.
All this time, however, the Lord is
adjoining good states to the truth already
in our mind, and the garden is being
planted afresh in our hearts. And so, when
our discomfort has reached a stage when
we feel we can bear it no more, the clouds
suddenly lift, the sun shines upon us again
and we feel deeply consoled for the suffering that we have endured. The temptation
has thus come to an end for the time being
and the Lord has fought victoriously for
us. Any battle must be accompanied by
violence and suffering, and the battle of
temptation is no exception. The only difference is this, that whereas ordinary
battles are unpredictable in human affairs,
64

66. the spiritual battle is bound to be in our
favour because it is the Lord Himself Who
fights for us, though only with our permission. We give Him our permission through
our very desire to be better men and
women than we already are.
It is a spiritual axiom that the Lord
never allows a man to be tempted beyond
his power to resist. The Lord's purpose is
not to break us but to make us. This He
does through a series of temptation-combats which may last all our life, or may
considerably lessen about middle life, depending upon the Lord's purpose for us in
the cosmic scheme of things and upon our
initial state of life. Our consolation lies in
the fact that our journey through these
battles is marked by an increasing delight
in living the life that God would have us
live-in His service.
At the beginning of our journey we felt
more pleasure in indulging our every whim
65 .

67. and fancy. But at the end of it, if we have
remained faithful to our trust, we feel
exactly the reverse. For the implanted
Goods, the Remains of Innocence which
the Lord gave to us from Himself when
we were very small and feeble-and therefore pliable to His Will-are now a part
of us through the conjunctive effect of the
temptation - combats themselves. With
every victory won over ourselves a new
state of good is born. And with every
birth of good in our wills a new capacity
for service to the Lord begins to take
effect. Thus our Will-faculty becomes
regenerated and clothed with the truths of
the Church which we have learned either
from the Word or by teaching from it.
So our soul will have gained a new,
heavenly Will-faculty in place of the original, defiled one. We shall have become
entirely new people. And our Understanding-faculty will have become equipped
wi.tth ttew rnatching truths entirely conson66

68. ant with the goods which the Lord has
given to us through temptation-combat, as
already mentioned. Other true concepts of .
life which we have come to love for the
sake of the Lord will attract still more;
until our whole character becomes completely transformed by love. We shall still
have imperfections which must be fought,
but they will no longer bulk so large and
will be seen as minor blemishes in an otherwise beautiful whole. Of ourselves, however, we would never have had the strength
to change our way of life. But the Lord in
His mercy and love has redeemed mankind
by His Own Power and enabled man to
choose freely and fearlessly the true path
to follow.
67

70. FRIENDSHIP
Assuming that we have come thus far
in regeneration and in the faithful application of the teaching of the Lord's Church,
it can confidently be predicted that we
shall enter into the wonderful and intimate state of "friendship" with the Lord.
The full implication of this state was discussed at some length at the beginning. It
was then clearly understood that this state
does not mean, and can never mean, a
state of equality. It does mean a state of
intimacy such as existed, for example,
between the Lord and His disciples. This
intimacy carries with it a kind of deeply
reverent familiarity such as should always
exist between friends. The Lord would not
·<
69

71. have it otherwise in His Own case. The
state of friendship over-rides all else
because, as pointed out in the beginning,
it is the expression of Love. Love is the
heart of all true friendship; and Love is
not a mere abstraction of thought, it is
very real.
One is accustomed in these days of
materialism to hearing the view that anything which is inexplicable by common or
scientific experience is unworthy of further
investigation or even belief. Such views
are often implied, if not actually expressed,
by writers of stature and by one or two
modern philosophers. But, fortunately,
there are many other people of standing in
modern life who do not bow the knee to
Baal, and who do not accept the sophistry
of clever ideas which have little to recommend them apart from their sheer novelty.
In other words, although many deny the
reality of Love except as a sentimental
cliche in modern speech, there are many
70

72. others who know positively from their
own experience that Love is a reality basic
to all life and experience. Denial of a reality does not make it any the less real; and
Love exists no matter how hard many
attempt to shut it out from their lives. God
is Love. And friendship with Him involves
Love to Him. We become His friends
because we love Him.
"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever
I command you".
We can only do this if we have love for
the Lord, either potentially or actually.
Those men and women whom the
Church (not the New Church) refers to as
"saints" are souls which have particularly
demonstrated in their lives-so far as one
can judge-these qualities of love which
have resulted in this state of friendship.
The outstanding quality of this relationship has been a deep and powerful convic11

73. tion of the Lord's love for them as individuals, coupled with a complete trust in
His Providence for them. This trust, in its
turn, brings about a sense of calm and
wonderment at the beauty of the Divine
Plan for all mankind. This is the "peace"
to which the Lord refers when He says,
"My peace I leave with you", to His disciples at the Last Supper. This "peace" is
the state of utter confidence that no matter
what happens to us in our outer, natural
lives we are completely under the Lord's
Personal care; that we are not too little to
be of account to Him; that He loves us
individually as separate persons.
Friendship, fortunately, is not the sole
prerogative of the "saints" but is the birthright of every soul. We can, and should,
all be the Lord's friends. If we are not,
then obviously we are not yet true
disciples, in the sense that we have not
fully committed ourselves to Him. There
are, nevertheless, differing degrees of
72

74. friendship, just as there are different
Heavens in the Spiritual World. Some of
us may attain to a deeper union with the
Lord than others, but that is not for us to
worry about so long as we do our best in
the way that we know and understand.
That is what the Lord requires of us,
namely, our trust first of all, and secondly
our best endeavour to serve Him and our
fellow man.
73

76. CONCLUSION
We have attempted to discuss, in this
short study, the true implication of our
Christian Faith in its definition of the
pr~er spiritual relationship between us,
as Lpractisingj Christians, and our Lord
Jesus Christ, GoCl arid Creator. We have
seen that a promise is held out of a
close and permanent union between us
and the Lord which carries with it a great
blessing of strength and happiness in the
Lord's Being, depicted so perfectly by the
disciple John laying his head upon the
Lord's breast at the Last Supper.
On the other hand we may confine ourselves to a more formal outward acknow75

77. ledgement of the Christian Faith consisting of a conscientious attendance at worship each Sunday and of other duties consequent upon our association with the
Church. This represents the Martha stage
of our Christian fellowship, when we are
" much cumbered " with our various
duties. This attention to our obligations
is essential to the expression of Love which
characterizes the higher state of friendship
to the Lord, since it represents the obedience to His Commands. But our obedience
to these divine commands should not
engender a state of mind which becomes
frustrated, like Martha's. Her sister, Mary,
it may be remembered, sat at the Lord's
feet and drank in His words as if her very
life depended upon it-and in a sense her
life did depend upon hearing all that the
Lord could tell her about the spiritual
laws. It may have appeared from the New
Testament story recounted in Luke chapter 10 that Mary evaded her duties, but
this is clearly not meant. She took time off
76

78. to devote to worship, to getting nearer to
God. She put the world away for the time
being in order to pray and meditate in her
heart upon what her life as a disciple
meant to her.
The Martha and Mary states are both
very necessary but we should never allow
Martha to dominate Mary. To achieve
complete union with the Lord, as our
Friend, we should concentrate upon the
higher level of use which grows easily and
naturally out of the lower state of being
serviceable. We begin by being serviceable,
that is, we obey conscientiously and literally the divine commands contained in the
Word, and we pay strict attention to our
duties as a member of the Church. This is
good and indeed vital to any meaningful
Christian life. But it is not in itself enough.
We must go further, by understanding our
true relationship with the Lord and His
77.

79. desire for us. That is, we must, like Mary,
become His friend, adoring Him as our
Saviour and worshipping Him as our God.
And this means, in its turn, that our service to Him becomes a joy, the very
expression of our love for Him, and no
longer a rather tedious devotion to duty.
It is like the seed that was sown in good
ground and which grew and flourished
and became of use to mankind. Like the
animals we were created to be of use, but
unlike them we were also created to be
His friends and His companions in the
Heavens. That is our glorious destiny, to
which the Lord invites us in His Own
words : "I have called you friends ... for
all things that I have heard of my Father
I have made known unto you".
78

80. INDEX
Acknowledgement of God: 12. l4.
Afjectioris: 43, 44.
Bearing our Cross: 18, 19.
Commandments, The: 13, 31, 33-36.
Conjunction: 5, l4, 54.
Correspondence, Law of : 53.
Discipleship : 18, 72, 76.
Disjunction: 14, 52.
Divine Providence: 12, 29, 30.
Equilibrium and the Gulf fixed: 43, 45.
Evil and Sin: 33-37.
False dogmas: 52, 53.
Foundation truths of Word: 20-25, 31, 56.
Freedom of choice: 15, 37, 46, 67.
Friendship: 5-1, 13, 69-72, 78.
God: 42, 51, 54.
Heaven and Hell: 43, 45, 59, 61.
Infiux: 39--43.
Joy: 5.
Living well: 13.
Lord's Divine-Human: 62.
Lord's Peace: 72.
Lord's Temptatioris: 52.
Meditation, reading and study: 9, 47, 55, 76.
Natural and spiritual worlds: 40, 41.
New Jerusalem and the new revelation: 8, 54.
Obedience: 16.
79

81. Original Sin: 38.
Proprium: 34.
Purpose of Creation: 11, 12.
Reformation and regeneration: 46, 48, 58, 59.
Remains of Innocence: 44.
Second Advent: 9, 51-54, 59 .
Self-denial and self-compulsion: 19, 20.
Spirits: 40, 42.
Swedenborg: 48-51, 53.
Temptations: 60, 62-67.
Will and Understanding faculties: 39, 43, 47, 56,
57, 66.
Writings of the New Church: 8, 9.
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