Week 4    Day 4

    Listen:

Not by Heaven, Not by Earth, Not by Jerusalem

Matthew 5:34-35

But I say to you, Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

Arcana Coelestia 9408:4

In these passages, and in many others, by “the heavens” are signified the angelic heavens; and as the Lord’s heaven on earth is the church, by “heaven” is also signified the church.

Apocalypse Explained 608:9

As swearing does not belong to the internal or spiritual man, and as the Lord, when He came into the world, taught men to be internal or spiritual, and to that end abrogated the externals of the church, and opened its internals, therefore He forbade swearing by God and by the holy things of heaven and the church... Here the holy things by which one must not swear are mentioned, namely, “heaven,” “earth,” “Jerusalem,” and the “head;” and “heaven” means the angelic heaven, wherefore it is called “the throne of God” (that “the throne of God” means that heaven, see above, n. 253, 462, 477); “the earth” means the church (see above, n. 29, 304, 413, 417), which is called therefore “the footstool of God’s feet” (that “the footstool of God’s feet” also means the church, see above, n. 606); “Jerusalem” means the doctrine of the church, wherefore it is called “the city of the great king” (that “city” means doctrine, see above, n. 223)....

Apocalypse Explained 608:10

The reason why they were not to swear by the temple and by the altar is that to swear by them was to swear by the Lord, by heaven, and by the church. For the temple, in the highest sense, means the Lord as to Divine Truth, and, in the respective sense, heaven and the church as to the same, also all worship from Divine Truth (see above, n. 220). And the altar signifies the Lord as to Divine Good, and, in the respective sense, heaven and the church as to that good, also all worship from Divine Good (see above, n. 391). And because by the Lord are meant all Divine things which proceed from Him, for He Himself is in them, and they are of Him, therefore he who swears by Him, swears by all things that are of Him. Similarly, he who swears by heaven and by the church, swears by all the holy things which pertain to them, for heaven embraces and contains them; and similarly the church. It is therefore said that the temple is greater than the gold of the temple, because the temple sanctifies the gold, and that the altar is greater than the gift which is upon it, because the altar sanctifies the gift.

Arcana Coelestia 10044:2

There are two things which signify the whole, namely, the highest and the lowest. That the lowest or ultimate also signifies the whole, is because all the interior things, even from the first or highest, close in the ultimates, and are there together (n. 9828, 9836). Hence it is that the highest, through the ultimate, holds together in connection and in form all the interior things which are intermediate, so that they look to one end....

Apocalypse Explained 223:11

Jerusalem was called “the city of God” because “God” in the Word of the Old Testament means Divine truth proceeding from the Lord (as may be seen above, n. 220, 222); and it was called “the city of the great king” because “king” also signifies, in reference to the Lord, Divine truth proceeding from Him (see above, n. 31). From this then it is that Jerusalem is called “the city of truth” (Zechariah 8:3).

Apocalypse Explained 1121:3

Life regarded in itself, which is God, cannot create another that shall be the only life; for the life that is God is uncreate, continuous, and inseparable; and from this it is that God is one. But the life that is God can create forms out of substances that are not life, in which it can be, and give to them the appearance of living.... [H]uman forms, which are recipients of life, live not from themselves, but from God who alone is life. Consequently, as is well known, every good of love and every truth of faith is from God, and nothing of these is from man; for if man had the least portion of life as his own, he would be able to will and do good from himself, and to understand and believe truth from himself, and thus to claim merit. And yet if he so believes, the form recipient of life closes itself above and becomes perverted, and intelligence perishes. Good and its love and truth and its faith are the life that is God, for God is good itself and truth itself; and therefore in these God dwells in man....

Arcana Coelestia 868

[T]here is nothing of good and nothing of truth in man except from the Lord, and... all evil and falsity are man’s from what is his own; and... man, and spirit, and even angel, if left in the least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; wherefore also it is said in the Word that heaven is not pure. This is acknowledged by angels, and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord’s mercy alone that liberates them and even draws them out of hell and keeps them from rushing there of themselves.

Conjugial Love 135

“By the tree of life, and by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by eating from them, is signified that for man, life is God in him, and he then has heaven and eternal life; but that death for man is the persuasion and belief that life in man is not God but is himself, from which he has hell and eternal death, which is damnation!”

See also Apocalypse Revealed 470.

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