The Gist of Swedenborg by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 27 of 72 (37%)
page 27 of 72 (37%)
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a religion. From the first Table they know that God is to be
acknowledged, hallowed and worshipped. From the second Table they know that a man is not to steal, either openly or by trickery, nor to commit adultery, nor to kill, whether by blow or by hatred, nor to bear false witness in a court of justice, or before the world, and further that he ought not to will those evils. From this Table a man knows the evils which he must shun, and in the measure that he knows them and shuns them, God conjoins him to Himself, and in turn from His Table gives man to acknowledge, hallow and worship Him. So, also, He gives him not to meditate evils, and, in so far as he does not will them, to know truths freely. --_Apocalypse Explained, n._ 1179 As one views the two tables, it is plain that they are so conjoined that God from His table looks to man, and that in turn man from his table looks to God. Thus the regard is reciprocal. God for His part never ceases to regard man, and to put in operation such things as are for his salvation; and if man receives and does the things in his table, reciprocal conjunction is effected, and the Lord's words to the lawyer will have come to pass, "This do, and thou shalt live." --_True Christian Religion, n._ 287 MARRIAGE |
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