Category — Lord

It appears to me that the pamphlet and sermons of Mr. Moubray are written out of a love to the Lord, and contain trues that are not generally recognized in the New Church, and which are of much importance; but as I see it, there are in the pamphlet and sermons certain statements which are open to serious criticism, as will appear from what follows.

In the sermons and pamphlet the words “Divine Humanity”, frequently occur. The Latin for humanity is “humanitas.” The word humanity (Latin humanitas) occurs rarely in the Writings of Swedenborg (which we believe to be the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord). The words Divine Humanity (Latin Divina Humanitas) are never used in relation to the Lord.

The translators do not make the distinction between words ending in “ty” (Latin “tas”) and the words without this ending, while this use of words involves an important distinction. For example, the eternal (Latin aeternum) involves the Lord and things from Him which are eternal while, eternity, (eternitas) is a quality which can be separated in the mind from the thing itself, its substance to draw the mind to mere time.

No distinction is made by the translators between “verum” the true, and “veritas”, truth, and between “bonum” the good, and “bonitas”, goodness.

In explication of the words of the Lord “I am the way, the truth and the life”, in a certain number which I do not have at hand it states that by truth, (Latin “veritas”), is signified the Divine True (Latin Divinurn Verum), which shows that verum, the true, is the internal while veritas, truth, is the external. The words Divinum Humanum, the Divine Human, are from the Lord out of Heaven, but the words Divine Humanity, is from the world and has the sphere of the world in it.

That the Writings of Swedenborg are the Word appears to me to be clearly taught in the following: “The Word was the God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh. (John 1:1,14) From these words it is clear that without the Lord’s Coming into the world no one could have been saved. It is the same at this day; and therefore without the Lord’s Coming again into the world in the Divine True which is the Word, no one could be saved.” (see T.C.R. 3)

“The internal sense…has been dictated to me from Heaven.” (A.C. 6597e)

In your sermons and pamphlet you say that Swedenborg taught this or that, which gives the impression as if it was from Swedenborg instead of, as is said, “from the Lord through (Latin per) me.”

There are passages, which you may know, where it is said every syllable is from the Lord. It is very important to have an exact translation. Translators often try to improve on the original.

In your second sermon you say “I can throw little light on most of these subjects. We have to be content to grope. After all, even the angels of the highest Heaven are intensely interested in these subjects; and they could hardly maintain their interest, if they knew all that was to be known about them.”

I also feel how little I understand of this most profound subject. We are taught that when Swedenborg visited the “temple of wisdom”, in the spiritual world, he was told that no one could enter that temple, unless he acknowledges from the heart that that which he knew compared to what he did not know was like a drop compared to the ocean. To this Swedenborg replied that he not only acknowledged this from the heart, but also clearly perceived this to be the case. He was therefore permitted to enter.

Read the full paper by Rev. Pitcain on the pamphlet of Mr. Mobray

 
Rev. Pitcairn:

The things which Mr. Groeneveld has said have given me reflection on a point which he presented in an informal talk recently on the way in which the Church should go.

The sign of the First Coming was that the Lord would be born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, because there was no room for them in the inn. We are told that He could have been born in a palace, in a cradle with precious stones, but there would then have been no correspondence. The palace and the precious stones draw the mind to the Nova Hierosolyma with its precious stones, and to the contrast between the First and Second Coming.

The direction of the Church depends on how we view the present state of the Church, to come to the simple primitive things represented by the manger and the swaddling clothes, or immediately to direct the eyes to the glory of Hierosolyma. If we see the Nova Hierosolyma as just around the corner, or if we see the First Coming of the Lord as a coming in glory, with all the universals and all the magnificent things of the Church, our direction of the thinking is entirely different than if we believe that the state is such that we must come to the primitive simplicity represented by the Lord in a manger.

To try to look immediately to Nova Hierosolyma or anything universal containing all the goods and truths of the Church would be to skip over the essential of the First Coming into an imaginary Second Coming. For we might speak of the First Coming and make it a thing of glory such as described in the Second Coming.

To go to the Second Coming or to the Lord appearing in glory, and not go through the things involved in the First Coming would have a similar effect as to return to the paradise of the Most Ancient Church and transfer that to the Second Coming. If we don’t come to the simple primitive things of the First Coming, the Church will take a wrong direction, and come into phantasies of all kinds. What can we think of the state signified by the Lord as an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger? The swaddling clothes are the bindings of a new innocence, in which man is as an infant, scarcely able to speak. What are those simple truths of a new innocence by which the Church can be saved? To see this we have to see it in contrast to the opposite. The opposite is illustrated particularly by a false idea of the priesthood. In ordination into the priesthood there is a promise of the Holy Spirit. There is some doubt whether that ought to be in the Liturgy. What does ordination really mean? Just as baptism is a sign and memorial that man must be regenerated, so ordination is a sign and memorial that if man is regenerated in the work of the priesthood, he will receive the Holy Spirit. Ordination must not be regarded as anything more than that. The Holy Spirit proceeds in the clergy, but nothing is more rare than for a priest to speak from the Holy Spirit. For the priesthood to imagine that they are in the fulfillment of that promise because they are priests leads to the greatest of phantasies. The danger is that a priest will think that his many scientifics are truths. A scientific becomes a truth only when genuinely applied to state. A living application to state in a genuine way makes the scientifics to be truths. If applied wrongly to the state, they become falsities. So it was with the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees signified by the inn. They had great knowledge, but applied it wrongly to the state, because they desired a Messiah who would rule the world.

With the priests there is the danger of wishing to be god of gods. The whole nature of his function is such as to make him able to exalt himself in this way. Does he recognize this in himself? Is his primary concern to fight against that thing? By overcoming that, and by coming to a new innocence he comes to that meant by the swaddling clothes. By recognizing the terrible pride and vanity that rules in every priest, and shunning it, he comes to that new innocence. In that connection, a minister raises his hand and says, “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ” at the beginning of a sermon. A young man doing that is apt to think it is a sign he is in the Holy Spirit, or he  feels that he is. Now we are told that a priest must preach according to the Doctrine of his Church from the Word. If he belongs to a Church which he believes to be a living Church, and that there is genuine Doctrine in the Church (and otherwise he should not belong to that Church) and when he says “The Name of the Lord” , he should think of that Doctrine, and not ascribe the Holy Spirit to himself. That Doctrine is the Name of the Lord, and his preaching should be according to it, for we are told that the Nome represents the Word and the genuine Doctrine of the Church out of the Word. There is the danger that a man might ascribe the Holy Spirit to himself on account of his office. That is the Catholic evil, that has in it the inmost love of self and its pride. Such things have been very dominant in the Church, and we must bind ourselves to come to a new innocence by shunning those terrible evils. We should be willing to be bound by the first truths of repentance, to the first things of the truths of innocence, like a baby bound in swaddling clothes.

In the beginning of the Lord’s New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma there were living states of perception. There were living applications of the scientifics of the Word to the state of the Church. But also many scientifics were developed that were not seen in genuine light. Thus there came a great mass of knowledges represented by the rich man at whose door was Lazarus. We have a fantastic wealth of knowledges which has nothing of genuine wealth in it.

There has been that phantasy particularly on the part of the priesthood, particularly where there is not that feeling of repentance and recognition of actual evil and a consequent humbling of oneself before the genuine spirit of the Word and of the Doctrine of the Church.

Another danger is to look to what is called charity, or to look to the good in another. To talk of charity without qualification is a dangerous thing. We are told that good before repentance is spurious good. Now if we sау to look to the good in a man, to the things of love, and do not make a distinction between good before repentance and after, we commingle things of heaven with those of hell and call it all charity or love. There must be a judgment. There is nothing of charity when we commingle our own good before repentance with the good of our neighbour before repentance. There has to be judgment, and this has to be made in the greatest spirit of humility and prayer to the Lord for enlightenment, that we may be conjoined only to the things of charity which are the result of a broken heart, the shunning of evils as sins against the Lord.

The false idea about what ordination does also creeps in about baptism. Because a person has joined the Church by baptism, some think he is in the things represented by the baptism, whereas it is only a sign and memorial.

The only way for the Church to come is to leave all this wealth of knowledge about the Word and the Doctrine, which for the most part is fantastic, and come to the simple laws of repentance, looking and praying to the Lord that there may be given a new innocence. Otherwise the Church will be destroyed, and the Church itself transferred to others.
…

(during the discussion of Rev. Pitcairn’s speech, he said): I spoke of coming to a new innocence. Mr. Barnitz spoke as if I had often spoken of this before. But the innocence I referred to is a thing that came to me during these meetings aid is not to be confused with things I have said about innocence at previous times. There are different degrees of innocence. There is that innocence when a person first comes to the Church. Also every state of the Church must begin with a new infantile state. That you had in the beginning of the Academy; and that you had come into existence when the Doctrine of the Church was as it were born.

I have a feeling that there is now a new state. In 1947 I felt that the Lord was as it were descending into the natural, which was involved in the things seen in that Assembly, but that that was not manifest in the Church, I compared it to the ministry of John the Baptist when the Lord was in the world but had not yet manifested Himself. Therefore if there is as it were the Lord for the first time become visible in a new way in the Church, then we see for the first time what is involved in the birth of the Lord. And it was in this connection I used the word innocence.

Mr. Barnitz spoke about the sensual. Every infantile state has its basis in the sensual, but the sensual which is represented by the seeing as it were of the Lord in the manger is a very different sensual than that of previous states of new birth. It is very difficult to give an idea of what one feels is the birth of the Lord, because it is something so tender and has so little form to it. Therefore my remarks were directed largely to those things that might prevent us from oozing to see what it is. My remarks about giving up one’s wealth of scientifics was not directed against one, but against all, particularly all the priests. My point there was that we should acknowledge that for the most part we have only scientifics, and only a remnant of living truths seen in application to a genuine state. We might compare this with a person coming to the New Church. They may have a great knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. That knowledge still remains, but they realize that it has not been opened, and therefore in relation to their new state they have hardly any truths.

It is the acknowledgment of having no living cognitions that is important. You have people who come to the New Church and who say that they have always known that, and have always acknowledged that, but if they feel that way it means that they are bringing the new things into their old state and mixing then.

And that is the point. If we begin to perceive what the Coming of the Lord is, then we realize we have no cognitions. Just as with the Jews. They had a great knowledge of the Law and about the Coming of the Messiah, but when the Lord actually came those things had to be left in the form in which they had existed with them to come to an entirely new idea of the Messiah, for instance the shepherds had a tradition of the Church about the Coming of the Messiah, which they believed with a certain innocence. But that former innocence in their cognitions had to be left to come to a new innocence represented by seeing the Lord in the manger.

We have to acknowledge that there are those things in us which are represented by Herod when he slew the infants of Bethlehem, and we must acknow­ledge that we have those former states of innocence which are slain by the evils in man till he comes to the state in which there are only certain remains which can come and receive the Lord as an infant. I cannot express at this time what I actually feel and see as the actual birth of the Lord. It is in too primitive a form. But we must see that pride and vanities and ambitions are things that must be fought against, and that these are the things which like Herod have destroyed the former states of innocence, in fact in relation to interior things. It speaks of Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not. There must be grief at the loss of innocence, before coming to see the primitive new beginnings which I believe are beginning to be vaguely visible in the Church.

Mr. Groeneveld:

For me the whole relationship is in relation to the human in which we are born and the relation to the Divine Human. In the beginning the Divine Human is as it were not present in the human of man. Still, in the beginning there is a relationship between his internal and his external. But the whole question is then, and now I speak only on the side of the human of man, that in the beginning there is a certain human in which the internal can be present. But that state comes to its fullness. And then the simplicity is that he feels that in the more interior he is lacking everything. Now, that lacking everything in relation to his thinking and willing, lacking everything in relation to the internal, that again he has to go to it till at last his human is in relationship with his internal, till really the internal in which the Lord has been present, in a certain way, comes into his human itself, that is for me the birth of the Lord. Because then you feel that your whole human from the rational to the outside, that everything is nothing in relation to what the real Divine Human is. And that is the first thing. And then for me in that relationship the birth of the Lord is a feeling of anything in the human of man that it is nothing, that he feels that there is nothing of him, that he feels of himself that he is lacking everything. Now in that state he is not in such a state that he is in glory, but he feels just the opposite, and that the thing is that he see what the real thing is  which has to come into his human, and that a  real thing of the Divine Human has to be present in him. Now that is for me the First Coming of the Lord.

But for me in relation to the state of the Church, they must go first through those states to see that the Divine Human has to come in them. But the danger is that in relation to the planes in which they are in willing and thinking, that in  a certain way the willing and thinking remains where they are, because they have had a feeling in that, and they make out of the feeling the reasonings. But if the other thing is opened, then that would be stopped; they would see the locking of everything in it. And that is a going open of the pure human things in relation to the internal, that for the first time the internal will be seen, because in the beginning only the external, in a certain way, but not the internal, is seen.

Now for me the whole direction of the Church is that they must see what the real internal  is in their own human, that they see the Divine Human as their own human. Now, that is for me a leaving of different planes in which man is. And there must be a leaving. That in the beginning was a difference here in relation to Durban. But that thing of leaving is a real thing, for otherwise you never come into contact with the internal. Never. Now that real thing in relation to a society is a very difficult thing; you can never bring a man from one thing over another; that all depends on him. But that the whole direction is seen, that the individual man, in everything in which he lives, that in relation to the internal he is not in connection with it, and that he has to come that the real internal comes into the human, and that never before any real thing existed, (only you can say that it existed representatively, but not the real thing,) that is for me the question. And then it is not a question of Doctrine and Life, but has more in it; because when they speak of Doctrine and Life it is always in such a relation as if the Doctrine has nothing in it. There must be something else. There must be a leaving of the human itself. And that is for me the question in relation to the priesthood, that they have a feeling as it were of the human itself what they have to leave, to see and point out that human. Just as I heard from Philip Odhner on the Nineteenth of June, that is the thing) they must feel if they come to the Church, and if they want to be regenerated, that there must be struggle, and a real struggle. They must not think, Yes, we are in the Church, now we are all right. That gives always a wrong idea. That makes always a plane which later comes to obstruction, to rebellion.

Now the work of the priesthood, the direction in relation to those things, that has not to do with simplicity, and the fewness of things, but it has to do in the few things to see that in relation to the human internal is wrong because if their idea of an interior human is still present and remains present, then at last the outmost things in which they first had a feeling become nothing and will be perverted. Now this feeling, and what the real approaching, openness, is, to see that plane as a general where the universals are, in that relation I see as a universal, and I think that everything of thinking and willing in the plane, in which man is, is a universal. Now every­thing in that must be seen in relation to the internal in which they have to come because they think they are in that internal, that it is present. That is for me the whole thing. They think they are in the internal, but they must feel that they are in an external, and that they prevent themselves that the internal can come down, and that the Lord can be born.

Now for me the whole state of the Church must pass through all those things unless the real internal can be present, and then we have the most universal in relation to the coming and development of the internal in the external. That is quite another thing, if you will develop the external itself but if the internal itself has no forms in the external, then you are always in difficulties.

Now the whole question is, Can they come to a real obedience in relation to the internal, that there is an internal? And that does not take away that in every man there can be an internal but that internal is not open-present.

If they think and speak out of the plane in which they are, and they think it is the internal, then you start with the wrong thing. Because the internal can only come gradually present.

And so for me the whole question is directed of the priests in relation to that human in which they live, and they think that is the real thing. The direction is an approaching and loving to see for themselves what is the Divine Human in those things. Now as I have already said in relation to that, what is really the feeling of the priesthood? When goes the mind open to hear a sermon or such of a priest? Then I feel in that relation what is said in the Word about those preachers who come into the celestial heaven, for there must be in that something that their mind is touched in relation to what must go away from the human in which they were afraid to come in; and they bring again up that real thing, that the internal alone has to live in the human. Now that is for me the whole question and the whole disturbance; and that will always be the disturbance unless the priest himself makes that more and more clear in that relation, in which human they live, and in which that first internal has come to be present with them, and that they must not see that external, the human in which they live, that that internal is present there directly.

That is for me the whole question. And unless those things start, there is not the first starting point for the most external approaching. Because when we speak of the most external approaching, that is for me the most external approaching in relation to that. Because I see only also the first external approaching in the Church; but the question of that external approaching depends on how you see that in relation to the internal. You can make an external, making without this as it were there, that this must be changed and changed to come to that. They think that this is present there, instead of the opposite. That is for me the whole point. Because otherwise never anything of real truth can enter there, because ever truth will be changed to the plane on which they are.

Thus there must be another thing present in the priesthood, a quite other thing present as to a reigning in the people, because a real truth can be present with them. Because always it will be seen from the outside and the real inmost thing of feeling is lacking. And then you get all difficulties.

December 25, 1960

Rev. Theodore Pitcairn

Lessons: Ex. 2:1-10; Luke 2:4-19; A.E. 706

“The angels said to the shepherds, There is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord; and this is a sign unto you, ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.”
(Luke 2:11,12,16; A.E. 706)

The account of the birth of the Lord is so beautiful and affecting that nearly all are moved by the story, even those who have little or no faith. All children love to hear the account again and again. This is of Providence for the implantation of remains, and as an ultimate basis of faith. But if, when we become adults, the story is not infilled, by an interior understanding of its significance it remains personal. We read: “He who thinks of God from person only, and not from essence, thinks materially.”
“The boys said: ‘We have thought of God from person. Have we, when reading the Word, appeared to any one like dead horses. The teacher said, You are boys, and cannot think otherwise, but I have perceived in you an affection for knowing and understanding.” (T.C.R. 623)

We read concerning our text:
“Since a sign means attestation that they might believe that the Saviour of the world was born, they said that they should find Him lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. … A manger means the Doctrine of the True from the Word, because horses signify the understanding of the Word; and thus a manger, as a feeding place for horses, signifies the Doctrine of the True from the Word; because there was no place in the inn; an inn signifies a place of instruction. Because the Jews … were in mere falsities, through adulteration of the Word, this is signified by there was no place in the inn.
… He is also said to have been wrapped in swaddling clothes, because swaddling clothes signify first trues, which are trues of innocence; and which also are trues of Divine Love; for nakedness, in reference to a babe, signifies the deprivation of trues.” (A.E. 706)

Unless we are in a perception of the internal sense, we are not moved by the internal sense as we are by the literal account of the birth of the Lord; for we do not perceive within the Doctrine of the true from the Word, represented by the manger, the trues of innocence and celestial love represented by swaddling clothes in which is the Lord as a little Babe.

Yet that such a perception is possible can be felt from the following quotation from de Hemelsche Leer:
“The head of the Son of Man is the good of love into the Lord, which is the inmost of the Doctrine of the Church. It is the good of love, from which the Doctrine of the Church comes into existence, for the Doctrine is spiritual out of a celestial origin. … In case of a change of state, there is no love for the essential of the Doctrine of the Church, There is no love for conjunction; the true conjugial is lacking. The external of the Doctrine of the Church, or its literal sense is touched with coarse hands, without feeling the tenderness of what is hidden within. Who is not painfully affected when he sees a small child, and especially a new born child, rudely handled?

Does not one experience a certain fear to touch a new born child with the hands, or even with the mouth? Is one not especially sensitive on such occasions of ones own coarseness and impurity? Does not all movements express a tenderness so as not to hurt the child? Let us then approach also the Doctrine of the Church as having been born from the Lord with humility and with a feeling of our own coarseness and impurity.” (Fasicle 3, P-35)

Bethlehem is said to signify the spiritual of the celestial, which is the same as is said of the Doctrine of the Church.

We also read:”Lo, we have heard of Him in Ephratha, we will come into His habitation, we will bow ourselves down at His footstool. Arise 0 Jehovah to Thy resting place. Thou and the ark of Thy strength. (Ps.132:6-9) Evidently this treats of the Lord, … Ephratha meaning Bethlehem where the Lord was born, and signifying the Word in respect to its natural sense, while Bethlehem signifies the Word in respect to its spiritual sense; and there He chose to be born because the Lord is the Word.” (A.E. 700)

The birth of the Lord is in the spiritual sense of the Word, although we are said to have heard of Him in Ephratha, that is in the natural sense of the Word. The birth of the Lord with us is in the internal sense of the Word of the Third Testament signified by Bethlehem although “we hear of Him” in the natural sense, signified by Ephratha. The Doctrine of the Church, in its essence, as spiritual from celestial origin, is one with the internal sense of the Word. Bethlehem, as shown above, is the spiritual of the celestial, and also the Internal sense of the Word, for these make one. For the essence of the Doctrine of the Church is the internal sense of the Word which has come to perception in the Church.

When the Lord came on earth, He glorified His Human and made a universal redemption. The operation was then from the side of the Lord. The cooperation or reciprocal, takes place when the Divine Human is consciously received, that is in His Second Coming. The Second Coming is only internally received when the New Church comes to a perception of the internal sense of the Third Testament, and makes this of life.

When the Lord was on earth, the things of His life were representative of His reception at His Second Coming.

The shepherds who came to the manger represented those who teach the trues of life and thus feed the flock. As persons these shepherds had no idea of the Doctrine of the true signified by the manger, nor of the first trues of innocence, signified by the swaddling clothes, and they had scarcely any idea of the Christ who was born; although they were under the great impression of the wonderful thing taking place.

The same is true of much of the Gospels; many of the miracles were miracles of healing the bodies, but which were representative of the cures of souls which the Lord would perform in His Second Coming. Even the Apostles understood little of the Lord’s words, for He often spoke in parables.

In general we too have little idea of the Lord’s birth on earth, or of its fulfillment in the Church, in His Second Coming. For, its fulfillment in us, we may be waiting, and we pray and hope that we are faithfully watching, with a modest and contented trust, knowing neither the hour or year when He cometh, but trusting that all is in His merciful Providence.

In our vanity we can easily imagine that we have a truly internal idea of the Lord’s birth, and that it is being fulfilled, or is about to be fulfilled, with us, when we are in reality in no state for its reception with us. The Lord comes to those who are in despair of ever being prepared to receive Him, rather than to those who feel themselves ready to receive Him.

On this day of the year the whole Christian world celebrates the birth of the Lord; many with vanity and some with simple faith. While we can rejoice that some in the world in general celebrate the Lord’s birth in simple faith, we should not enter into the mixed sphere of celebrating Christmas even with such, as are sincere. The sphere of Christmas which is truly of the Lord’s New Church is entirely different. This sphere as yet may be very weak in our midst; we may lack it more than the simple in the Christian world, but it can only come into existence and grow if we are willing to leave the sphere of the world, including the sphere of the celebration of the birth of the Lord by the simple in the world. The prevailing sphere in the old church, is a sphere of worshipping the Lord as to person and not as to essence. It is this sphere that we must leave.

Yet the ultimate account of the Lord’s birth on earth, with the great delight in this story, still must be in our natural mind and its affection, as the foundation upon which all interior ideas rest, for without the childish wonder of the birth of the Lord, all interior ideas are like a temple in the air. We should indeed have a love for all who truly love the celebration of the birth of the Lord as their Saviour, and yet remain distinct from them, not co- mingling our thinking and feeling with theirs; not from a feeling of superiority, which we may not have, but from a feeling for order, and for the possibility of a real development.

We read: “If it had pleased the Lord He might have been born in a most splendid palace, and have been laid in a bed adorned with precious stones; but He would then have been with such as were in no Doctrine of the true, and there would have been no celestial representation.” (A.E.706)

The Lord cannot be born with us in those knowledges of the Word which we have taken to ourselves, and which have put on, in ourselves , and in the Church, an appearance of great splendor. He can only be born in the affection of the true from a humble heart that feels itself poor in all things of the Word, and is willing to be instructed.

Let us pray that we may hear, understand and love the words of the angels: “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord; and this is a sign unto you, ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.”

Amen

Read the CHRISTMAS SERMON in pdf format

Hatreds, revenges, cunnings, deceits, describe the internal and external evils in relation to the will and the understanding.

Hatred, is of the will, and revenges are the acts which proceed from the will. Cunning is of the understanding and deceits, are the acts which come forth from this cunning.

To view these evils we must see them as the opposites of goods. Hatreds are the opposite of loves; revenges are the opposite of showing mercies, and doing good; cunning is the opposite of innocence; and deceit is the opposite of acting sincerely.

Every one has a natural idea of these goods and their opposite evils. But such goods and such evils in the natural man do not differ much from such loves and acts with animals. What such evils are in the internal sense is hidden in the internal sense of the Word.

While the evils spoken of in the external sense of the Word are natural evils, this does not mean that this sense is not important to us. In the early states of reformation these are the only evils we see, and if in such states we do not combat and overcome them, we can never come to more interior states in which we must see and combat against more interior evils.

One who does not combat against natural hatred, can never be brought to see what interior hatred is; one who does not combat against natural revenge, can never come to see what interior revenge is; one who does not combat against natural cunnings and deceits, can never come to recognize interior cunnings and deceits. We must first come to recognize these natural evils in ourselves, and come to have a horror of them; and thus be brought to the goods of the natural to which these evils are opposed.

Any one who reflects can easily observe how, when one opposes him, or resists him, particularly in relation to his ruling loves, or ignores him, or fails to respect or honor him, or even pays insufficient attention to him; how he tends to become angry with such a one, and tends to take revenge, by hurting him or by speaking ill of him.

One can also easily observe, if he reflects, how he cunningly strives to accomplish his own ends, how he puts on appearances to persuade others, how he says things which are not exactly true, or gives a twist to things to take advantage of others.

There is nothing more important to begin with, than by shunning cunning and deceits to come to a natural innocence, and sincerity in all things of our natural life. This first natural innocence and sincerity is not however, natural innocence and sincerity itself. It is only after shunning interior cunning and deceit, and thereby coming to an interior innocence and sincerity, that a new nat¬ural can come into existence in which there is natural innocence and sincerity itself out of the Divine Human of the Lord, who is innocence itself.

Read the full sermon on AE 1148 by Rev. Theodore Pitcairn (year 1959)

“Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen” (Matt. 6:13.)

In the early part of the Lord’s prayer, it is said, “Thy Kingdom come,” – when all things of the lord’s prayer have been fulfilled, this prayer is answered in the words of our text, “Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory, for over.” This is the end to which all things of the Lord’s prayer look, and when fulfilled in man, the Lord’s Kingdom is instaurated. A few of things which must be fulfilled before this instauration can take place have been presented in this series of sermons .m the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s Kingdom on earth is the Lord’s Church, both the Church specific and the Church universal; with us it is particularly the instauration of the Church specific that we are to pray for, – an instauration in common and with each individual. The word Kingdom comes from the word king. The Lord, as the Divine True, is the King; where the Divine True is received and rules, there is His Kingdom. When the Divine True is received and lived, so that it becomes the very vessels of the mind, then the Lord dwells in His Own with man, and the Lord is the all in all things of His Kingdom.

Until the Church is instaurated fully in the natural, – instaurated in common and with the individuals, – it cannot be said in application to the state, that “Thine is the Kingdom,” in the full sense of the Word. We indeed say “Thine is the Kingdom” because the Word is eternal, and not bound by time or state, but in relation to the state of the Church, we are still, or should be still in the prayer “Thy Kingdom come.” That is, we should be in a longing for His Kingdom. Because the Church, as yet, in a full sense, has not been instaurated, the words of the prayer cannot be illustrated out of experience. Nevertheless we can have some vision concerning them; that is, we can see that they are to be fulfilled.

When the Divine true things have become the Lard’s living receptacles in the Church, and in the man of the Church, then the Lord’s Power manifests itself; power refers to the Divine Love, for all power is from love. Power is of the will, and the will is the love as to its activities.

When the vessels of the mind, represented by the Lord’s Kingdom, have become the Lord’s, – when they are living vessels of truth, – then the Lord’s Power appears, – the power of Infinite Love, which manifests Itself in Church and the man of the Church. From this love there is a glorification of the Lord in the Church, and In the man of the Church, or, said in another way, the Lord is glorified in the Church.

The word “Glory” refers to the Divine True manifesting Itself. The Internal sense of the Word Is called glory. When the internal sense is seen as the Lord, the Son of man, in the midst of the Church, then are fulfilled the words, “Thine is the Glory”. May the time soon approach in the Church when the prayer is fulfilled. “Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory.”

Read the full sixth sermon on the Lord’s Prayer by Rev. Theodore Pitcairn

Before speaking about Swedenborg, I will say a few words about the New Church. The Christian world is more and more losing faith in God as a Divine Man. There are those who consider God to be “the ground of being”, the order of the universe, or other terms which take away the idea of God as a Divine Man.

If it is not believed that God is a Divine Man, the First and Great Command¬ment cannot be fulfilled; for who can love the “Ground of Being” with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength? We are told that God created man in His image and likeness; wherefore it follows that God is Infinite Man. But finite man cannot comprehend the Infinite, as we read, “No man hath seen God:” John 1:18

The purpose of creation is that there might be those whom God can love and who can love God and their fellow men. If God is not a Divine Man who can love and be loved, creation has no sense, no meaning. Now we cannot love that which we do not know; wherefore to fulfill the end of creation, God had to reveal Himself to man; He had to clothe Himself in Divine appearances, suited to the comprehension of men. Jehovah therefore appeared in visions and dreams to the men of the Most Ancient Church. By influx through the Heavens He clothed Himself with a Human appearance that men could see, know, and love. Later He revealed Himself in His Word, which was accommodated to man’s comprehension. When this was no longer sufficient, for our salvation, He descended and took on a natural Human by
birth in this world. If we view this from a feeling of the nature of God’s love and purpose in creation this is not surprising, but is the natural fulfillment of the end of creation. In fact, if one elevates one’s mind above the materialistic thought of the world, one can see that it could not have been otherwise.

The whole of the Old and New Testament teach that God is a Divine Man. Where this idea is lost there is nothing of real Christianity left, even with those who still call themselves Christian.

The First and Great Commandment commences with the words, “The Lord our God is one Lord.” If the idea of the oneness of God is lost, the mind becomes totally confused, and when the mind is in the dilemma as to whether God is one or three persons, there can be no love of God with all the mind; and, when there is no love of God with the mind, the love of God with the heart is also lost. It can be readily seen that if a man did not know whether his father was one or three persons he could not love his father; and that a man who was entirely indifferent as to whether his father was one or three certainly had no love. Is it not evident chat the same applies to our Father in Heaven, that if there is no interest in understanding the Trinity, this indicates that there is no love of the Lord?

On account of the Church dividing God into three persons, and later coming to the general denial that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, the Lord had to come again in His Word for the sake of the salvation of the Human race. The Lord made His Second Coming to reveal Himself anew, to reveal Himself in His Divine Human.

Read the full paper on Swedenborg and Second Coming of the Lord by T. Pitcairn

In the first place, I would like to say why I first proposed to speak on the subject of the human of the Lord which He glorified, then withdrew the proposal, but finally agreed to speak on this subject.

The reason was that the order of the Church is to have a paper sent out formally so that those attending the meetings have a chance to consider the subject, and so that the subject does not come as something new but as something reflected upon.

I did not write a paper for the following reasons: My ideas were just forming in my mind and had not yet taken a many definite form, and there were many obscurities in my mind. I therefore did not wish to put them down in written form until the subject was more clear in my mind.

I have been working for the last nine months, concentrating on the subject, but have not come to a conclusion on many things and, therefore, I did not know how much more study, or how much more time it would take before I felt like writing; and, as I’m getting to an age where one does not know how long one is going to live, or how long one’s mental faculties will be fully alert, I thought I might say a few words on the subject.

I did express some of my ideas in a letter, which you have read. I have a great many ideas, but what I will say tonight will be s relatively a few thoughts on the subject.

Another reason I withdrew was that we will gain little from the subject if there is a spirit of debate and argumentation. If there is not a spirit of charity, we may say things that later we will regret. In DE HEMELSCHE LEER it speaks of coming together in an interior dwelling, where we can meet.

That interior dwelling s a dwelling in the presence of the Lord. If we get into a debate or argument He is not present. This is a thing I feared. I did not fear it only on account of others, but I myself have felt drawn into that sort of debating and arguing atmosphere, so that when I returned home from the meeting, I have felt distressed at what I had said, and I don’t doubt that others have felt the same way.

I have, therefore, requested that, as the subject is new and requires meditation, that we omit discussion… It would be better if we left the consideration of the subject to a later meeting when, possibly I might be able to write something on the subject. My ideas are based on many passages of the Third Testament that I have considered, but which I can not directly quote, nor can I give you the numbers that my ideas are based on; so I am just presenting thoughts for you to consider…

In considering something that is new, it is important to try to enter into the thinking and feeling of the one who presents it. There is always a danger that from one’s former thoughts, one expresses ideas according to the habit of one’s thinking instead of first trying to enter fully into what is being presented. In a letter of Mr. Groeneveld’s to Bishop DeCharms, he complains that Bishop DeCharms did not enter into the field of his thinking, but was arguing from his own previous ideas.

The first thing in coming to wisdom is to realize that what we know compared to what we do not know, is like a drop of water compared to the ocean. And this is certainly true in relation to the doctrine concerning the Lord. What we know is very, very little. If we have studied the ARCANA COELESTIA many times, especially those chapters which treat of the Lord and His Glorification, we are apt to think that we know far more than we really know.

It says in DE HEMELSCHE LEER that when any one comes from one discreet plane of thinking to another, that the statements in THE CORONIS to the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION apply.

In the CORONIS there are three of four lists of statements concerning a lack of cognitions, namely twenty some statements, of which it is said there is no cognitions: no cognition of God, no cognition of the Lord, no cognition of the Trinity, no cognition of faith, no cognition of charity, no cognition of regeneration, etc.

And it says that whenever one comes into an essentially new state, one is totally ignorant of all these subjects. This does not mean, of course, that one does not know the things he had learnt before, but that he does not have any cognition in relation to the state into which he is to come.

When I was in the General Church, before I came to know DE HEMELSCHE LEER, I had read the whole of the Third Testament seven or eight times. I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of the Third Testament; but when I came to know DE HEMELSCHE LEER, I realized what I knew was only generals of the letter and that I had no knowledge of anything internal at all..

If you enter into a new subject, you realize that what you know of it is scarcely anything. Yet that little you do know – that drop, is all important; it is the very center of the life. Although it is as a drop compared to the ocean, these trues are still all-important. The Word contains infinite trues; few of those trues are expressed in direct statement, what has been called “taking up by direct cognizance. ” The interior trues are only within when the Lord orders them out of an influx of good so that we see them in a genuine relation.

For example, if we are studying chapters of the ARCANA which treat of the glorification of the Lord, we may find a passage that suddenly throws a new light on the whole subject; a number from the ARCANA COELESTIA, or maybe some other book in the Third Testament, with which, at first, one had not connected it at all with what one is studying. So it comes in a surprising way that we come to a certain light. This is enough for an introduction.

Read the full paper on the Human of the Lord which He glorified by T.Pitcairn

Before speaking about Swedenborg, I will say a few words about the New Church. The Christian world is more and more losing faith in God as a Divine Man. There are those who consider God to be “the ground of being,” the order of the universe, or other terms which take away the idea of God as a Divine Man.

If it is not believed that God is a Divine Man, the First and Great Commandment cannot be fulfilled; for who can love the “Ground of Being” with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength? We are told that God created man in His image and likeness; wherefore it follows that God is Infinite Man, But finite man cannot comprehend the Infinite, as we read, “No man hath seen God:” John 1:18

The purpose of creation is that there might be those whom God can love and who can love God and their fellow men. If God is not a Divine Man who can love and be loved, creation has no sense, no meaning. Now we cannot love that which we do not know; wherefore to fulfill the end of creation, God had to reveal Himself to man; He had to clothe Himself in Divine appearances, suited to the comprehension of men. Jehovah therefore appeared in visions and dreams to the men of the Most Ancient Church. By influx through the Heavens He clothed Himself with a Human appearance that men could see, know, and love. Later He revealed Himself in His Word, which was accommodated to man’s comprehension. When this was no longer sufficient, for our salvation, He descended and took on a natural Human by birth in this world. If we view this from a feeling of the nature of God’s love and purpose in creation this is not surprising, but is the natural fulfillment of the end of creation. In fact, if one elevates one’s mind above the materialistic thought of the world, one can see that it could not have been otherwise.

The whole of the Old and New Testament teach that God is a Divine Man. Where this idea is lost there is nothing of real Christianity left, even with those who still call themselves Christian.

The First and Great Commandment commences with the words, The Lord our God is one Lord.” If the idea of the oneness of God is lost, the mind becomes totally confused, and when the mind is in the dilemma as to whether God is one or three persons, there can be no love of God with all the mind; and, when there is no love of God with the mind, the love of God with the heart is also lost. It can be readily seen that if a man did not know whether his father was one or three persons he could not love his father; and that a man who was entirely indifferent as to whether his father was one or three certainly had no love. Is it not evident chat the same applies to our Father in Heaven, that if there is no interest in understanding the Trinity, this indicates that there is no love of the Lord?

On account of the Church dividing God into three persons, and later coming to the general denial that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, the Lord had to come again in His Word for the sake of the salvation of the Human race. The Lord made His Second Coming to reveal Himself anew, to reveal Himself in His Divine Human.

Read the full paper on Swedenborg and the Second Coming of the Lord by T. Pitcairn

“In the beginning was the Word, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not….That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came into His own, and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5; 9-14)

To understand the First Coming of the Lord to man it is necessary to have some understanding of the “Heaven of human internals,” concerning which we read: “Man’s internal is that from which he is a man, and by which he is distinguished from brute animals. By means of this internal he lives after death, and to eternity, a man, and by means of which he can be uplifted by the Lord among the angels. This internal is the very first form from which a man becomes and is man, and by means of it the Lord is united to man. The very Heaven that is nearest the Lord is composed of these human internals; but this is above even the inmost angelic Heaven, and these internals belong to the Lord Himself. By this means the whole human race is most present under the Lord’s eyes, for there is no distance in Heaven… These internals of men have no life in themselves, but are forms recipient of the Lord’s life. Insofar, therefore as a man is in evil, as well actual as hereditary so far he has been separated from this internal which is the Lord’s and with the Lord, and thereby so far he has been separated from the Lord; for although this internal has been adjoined to man, and is inseparable from Him, nevertheless so far as he recedes from the Lord, so far has he been, as it were separated from it. But the separation is not an absolute sundering from it, for then the men could no longer live after death; but it is a dissent and disagreement on the part of those faculties of his which arc below, that is, his rational and his external… But the Lord’s internal was Jehovah Himself.” (A.C. 1999)

Read the full sermon on John 1:1-5, 9-14 by T. Pitcairn

The subject of this sermon is, to a degree, continued in the Series of Sermons on the True Christian Religion №2

“The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in Universal form, is this: That the Lord from the eternal, who is Jehovah, came into the world in order that He might subjugate the hells, and glorify His Human: and that apart from this no one of mortals could have been saved; and that they are saved who believe in Him.” (T.C.R. 2.)

We are taught that the Word consists of the celestial sense, the spiritual sense, and the natural sense which is the sense of the letter.

The celestial sense treats of the Lord and His Glorification, the spirituual sense, of the regeneration of man and of the Lord’s Kingdom, the natural sense, of the reformation of the natural man.In the Third Testament in its literal sense, all these subjects are treated of. This appears like a paradox. We read: “There are in Heaven and in this world a successive order and a simultaneous order. In successive order one thing follows another from highest to lowest; but In simultaneous order one thing is next another from inmost to outmost. Successive order is like a column with successive parts from top to bottom; but simultaneous order is like a connected structure with successive circumferences from center to surface. It shall now be told how in the ultimate successive order becomes simultaneous order. It is in this way: The highest things of successive order become the inmost things of simultaneous order, and the lowest things of successive order become the outmost ones of simultaneous order. Comparatively speaking it is as if a column of successive parts were to sink down and become a connected body in a plane… Apply this to the Word. The celestial, the spiritual, and the natural proceed from the Lord in successive order, and in the ultimate are in simultaneous order; thus now the celestial and spiritual sense of the Word are simultaneous in its natural sense.” (Sacred Scripture 38)

The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, concerning the Lord, as first taken up, is the celestial sense in the natural or literal sense of the Word.

It is only as by regeneration man’s mind is opened to the spiritual or celestial degree, that one is in the spiritual or celestial sense proper.

When we first read the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church concerning the Lord we see it as something outside of ourselves, something which took place two thousand years ago, by which we are in danger of thinking that we are saved by what the Lord did when in the world apart from the Lord’s particular redemption of us….

Read full sermon by Rev. Theodore Pitcairn