Canons of the New Church · The Holy Spirit and the Divine Trinity

32. THE HOLY SPIRIT.

UNIVERSALS.

I. The Holy Spirit is the Divine, which proceeds from the One, Infinite, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent God.

II. The Holy Spirit, in its essence, is that God Himself; but in subjects in which it is received, it is the Divine Proceeding.

III. The Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeds from that God Himself through His Human; comparatively as that which proceeds from man, that is, as what he teaches and operates proceeds from his soul through his body.

IV. The Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeding from God through His Human, passes through the angelic heaven, and through this into the world, thus through angels into men.

V. Thence [it passes] through men to men, and in the church chiefly through the clergy to the laity, what is Holy is continually given, and it recedes if the Lord is not approached.

VI. The Divine Proceeding, which is called the Holy Spirit, in its proper sense is the Holy Word, and the Divine Truth therein;

VII. And its operation is instruction, reformation, and regeneration, and hence vivification and salvation.

VIII. In the degree that any one knows and acknowledges the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord, in that degree he knows and acknowledges God; and in the degree that any one does this Divine Truth, in that degree he is in the Lord, and the Lord in him.

IX. The Spirit, in respect to man, is his intelligence, and whatever thence proceeds

33. CHAPTER I.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE DIVINE, WHICH PROCEEDS FROM THE ONE, INFINITE, OMNIPOTENT, OMNISCIENT, AND OMNIPRESENT GOD, THROUGH HIS HUMAN ASSUMED IN THE WORLD.

1. The Holy Spirit is not God by itself, or singly; neither does it proceed from God through the Son as a Person from Persons, according to the doctrine of the church at the present day.

2. This is utterly inconsistent; because a person is defined as being not a part and quality in another, but as subsisting separately.

3. And [it is said] that although the property and quality of the one are separate from that of the other, yet they are from an essence one and indivisible.

4. Thence inevitably results not only the idea, but also the confession of three Gods, which however from the Christian faith, according to the Athanasian Creed, are not to be called three but one.

5. The truth is, that from eternity, or before creation, there were not three Persons, each of which was God; thus there were not three infinite, three uncreate, three immense, eternal, omnipotent ones, but One.

6. But after creation there arose a Divine Trinity, since then from the Father was born a Son, and from the Father through the Son proceeds the Holy, which is called the Holy Spirit.

7. Hence, because the Father is the soul and life of the Son, and the Son is the Human body of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Divine proceeding, it follows that they are con-substantial, and hence that they subsist not singly, but conjointly.

8. And because the property of the one, according to order, is derived and passes over into the other, and from this to the third, they are one Person, thus one God.

9. Comparatively as in every angel, and in every man, from the soul by the body proceeds every operation.

10. Reason enlightened by the Sacred Scripture may perceive this, namely, that there is a Trinity of Person, which is a Trinity of God, but not a trinity of Persons, because this is a trinity of gods.

34. CHAPTER II

THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHICH PROCEEDS FROM THE ONE GOD THROUGH HIS HUMAN IN ITS ESSENCE IS THE SAME GOD, BUT THAT APPARENTLY TO SUBJECTS, WHICH ARE IN SPACES, IT IS THE DIVINE PROCEEDING.

1. What God was before creation, such He is after it; thus such as He was from eternity, such He is to eternity.

2. Before creation God was not in extended space, so neither is He after creation, to eternity;

3. Consequently, God is in space without space, and in time without time.

4. Thus the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the one God through His Human is the same God.

5. Concerning God, since He is everywhere the same, it cannot be said that He proceeds, except apparently, in respect to spaces, because these proceed, thus apparently to subjects which are in spaces.

6. And since these are in the created world, it follows that the Holy Spirit there is the Divine proceeding.

7. The Omnipresence of God fully proves that the Holy Spirit is the Divine proceeding from the one and indivisible God, and not a God as a Person by Himself.

35. CHAPTER III.

THE DIVINE WHICH IS CALLED THE HOLY SPIRIT, PROCEEDING FROM GOD THROUGH HIS HUMAN, PASSES THROUGH THE ANGELIC HEAVEN INTO THE WORLD, THUS THROUGH ANGELS INTO MEN.

1. The one God in His Human is above the angelic heaven, appearing there as a sun, from which proceed love as heat, and wisdom as light.

2. Thus the Holiness of God, which is called the Holy Spirit, flows in order into the heavens; immediately into the supreme heaven, which is called the third heaven; immediately and also mediately into the middle heaven, which is called the second heaven; similarly into the ultimate heaven, which is called the first heaven.

3. It flows through these heavens into the world, and through this into men there.

4. Nevertheless the angels of heaven are not the Holy Spirit.

5. All the heavens together with the churches on the earths, in the sight of the Lord are as one Man.

6. The Lord alone is the soul and life of that Man, and all who are animated and live from Him are His body. Hence it is said, that the faithful constitute the body of the Lord, and they are in Him, and He in them.

7. The Lord flows into the angels of heaven, and into the men of the church, in a certain likeness to the manner in which the soul flows into the body with man.

36. CHAPTER IV.

THENCE IT PASSES THROUGH MEN TO MEN, AND IN THE CHURCH CHIEFLY THROUGH THE CLERGY TO THE LAITY.

1. No one can receive the Holy Spirit except from the Lord Jesus Christ, because it proceeds from God the Father through Him. And by the Holy Spirit is meant the Divine proceeding.

2. No one can receive the Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, unless he goes to the Lord immediately, and at the same time is in the love [of Him].

3. The Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine proceeding, never becomes man’s; but it is constantly the Lord’s with him.

4. Therefore the Holy, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, does not inhere; neither does it remain, except so long as the man who receives it believes in the Lord, and at the same time is in the doctrine of truth from the Word, and in a life according to it.

5. The Holy, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, is not transferred from man to man, but from the Lord through man to man.

6. God the Father does not send the Holy Spirit, that is, His Divine, through the Lord into man; but the Lord sends it from God the Father.*

7. The clergyman, because he is to teach doctrine from the Word concerning the Lord, and concerning redemption and salvation from Him, is to be inaugurated by the promise, [sponsionem] of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its transfer; but it is received by the clergyman according to the faith of his life.

8. The Divine, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the Clergy to the laity by preaching, according to the reception of the doctrine of truth thence.**

9. And by the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before it.

* [ANNOTATIONS FROM THE MARGIN WHICH PERHAPS BELONG HERE.]

The Holy Spirit is the Divine Operation and virtue proceeding from the one God.

It proceeds out of the Lord and from God the Father.

It proceeds out of the Lord from God the Father and not contrariwise.

** It proceeds to the clergy and from them to the laity.

It flows into men who believe in the Lord, and if according to order, into the clergy, and thus through them into the laity.

37. CHAPTER V

THE DIVINE PROCEEDING, WHICH IS CALLED THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN ITS PROPER SENSE IS THE WORD, WHEREIN IS THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

1. The Word is Holiness itself in the Christian Church, from the Divine of the Lord which is therein, and which is therefrom; wherefore the Divine proceeding which is called the Holy Spirit, in its proper sense, is the Word and the Holiness of God.*

2. The Lord is the Word because it is from the Lord, and concerning the Lord, and thus in its essence is the Lord Himself.

3. The Lord, because He is the Word, is alone Holy; and He is the “Holy One of Israel,” who is so often mentioned in the Prophets, concerning whom it is also there said that He alone is God.

4. Hence it is that the place where the ark was in the tabernacle,-because in it was the law, the beginning of the Word, over which was the propitiatory, and over this the cherubim, all which signified the Lord as the Word,-was called the “Sanctuary,” and the “Holy of Holies.”

5. Hence it is also that the New Jerusalem, which is the church that approaches the Lord alone, and derives truths from His Word, is called “holy,” and also the “city of holiness”; and the men in whom that church is are called a “people of holiness”; also this church is the “kingdom of saints,” in Daniel, which will endure forever.

6. The Prophets and Apostles are called “holy” because the Word was written through them.

7. The Holy Spirit since it is taught by the Lord from the Holy Word is called the “Spirit of Truth,” of whom the Lord says that He shall not speak from Himself but from the Lord, and that it is He Himself.

8. To him “who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit it is not remitted,” because he denies the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word; for he has no religion.

9. To him who speaks a word against the “Son of man” it is remitted, because he denies this and that to be Divine Truth from the Word in the church, but believes that in the Word and from the Word are Divine truths. The “Son of man” is the Divine Truth from the Word in the church, and this cannot be seen by all.

* [AN ANNOTATION FROM THE MARGIN WHICH PERHAPS BELONGS TO THIS PLACE.]

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Lord through the Word.

CHAPTER VI.

[Chapters VI., VII., and VIII. of this Treatise could not be found, when this tractate was copied from the autograph.]

THE DIVINE VIRTUE AND OPERATION WHICH ARE MEANT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE INSTRUCTION, REFORMATION, REGENERATION AND ACCORDING TO THESE VIVIFICATION, SANCTIFICATION, AND JUSTIFICATION; AND ACCORDING TO THESE PURIFICATION FROM EVILS, REMISSION OF SINS, AND SALVATION.

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE DEGREE THAT ANY ONE KNOWS AND ACKNOWLEDGES THE DIVINE TRUTH WHICH PROCEEDS FROM THE LORD, IN THE SAME DEGREE HE KNOWS AND ACKNOWLEDGES GOD; AND IN THE DEGREE THAT ANY ONE DOES THIS DIVINE TRUTH, IN THE SAME DEGREE IS HE IN THE LORD AND THE LORD IN HIM.*

* See UNIVERSALS VIII., number 32.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SPIRIT IN RESPECT TO MAN IS HIS INTELLIGENCE AND WHATEVER THENCE PROCEEDS, AS HIS OPERATION AND VIRTUE.*

* See UNIVERSALS IX., number 32.

[ANNOTATION FROM THE MARGIN, WHICH PERHAPS IS TO BE READ HERE.]

By the spirit of man is meant his intelligence, and thus also whatever proceeds from it as his operation and virtue.

38. V.

THE DIVINE TRINITY.

SUMMARY.

[I. There Is a Divine Trinity.

II. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Are Three Essentials of One God.

III. There Was Not a Trinity Before the World Was Created.

IV. The Trinity Came Into Existence in Jesus Christ After the World Was Created.

V. This Trinity Appears from the Word, as also from the Apostles’ Creed, but Not from the Nicene.

VI. Absurd Ideas Derived from the Nicene Trinity.

VII. This Trinity Has Perverted the Church.

VIII. It Has also Falsified the Word.

IX. Thence There Is that “Affliction” and “Desolation” Foretold by the Lord.

X. There Is No Salvation Unless a New Church Is Established by the Lord.

XI. The Trinity Is in the Lord the Saviour; hence He alone Is To Be Approached, as He Is Salvation or Life Eternal.]

[TO BE NOTED.]

1. The idea of the common people of the Divine Trinity, is, that God the Father sits on high, and His Son at His right hand, and that they send the Holy Spirit to men.

2. The idea of the clergy in respect to the Trinity is, that there are three Persons, each of whom is God and Lord, and that to the three there is one and the same essence.

3. The idea of the wise among the clergy is, that there are three communicable properties and qualities; but by three Persons are meant what are incommunicable.

4. There is a Divine Trinity; from the Sacred Scripture and from reason.

5. From a trinity of Persons there inevitably follows a trinity of Gods.

6. If God is one the Trinity of God is necessary, and thus a Trinity of a Person.

7. The Trinity of God, which is also a Trinity of a Person, is in God incarnate, or in Jesus Christ.

8. This is confirmed from the Sacred Scripture;

9. And also from reason, since there is a trinity in every man.

10. The Apostolic Church never thought of a trinity of Persons, as is evident from their Creed.

11. A trinity of Persons was first invented by the Nicene Council.

12. It was derived therefrom into the churches after that time, even to the present time.

13. That doctrine could not be corrected before this day.

14. The trinity of Persons has inverted the whole church, and has falsified each and all things thereof.

15. All say that it is beyond comprehension, and that the understanding is to be held under obedience to faith. What is “a Son born from eternity”?

16. In the Lord there is a Trinity, and in the Trinity is Unity.

39. CHAPTER I.

THERE IS A DIVINE TRINITY; NAMELY, THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. The Unity of God is acknowledged and received throughout the whole world, wherever there is religion and sound reason.

2. Therefore the Trinity of God could not be known; for if it had been known, yea, if only declared, concerning the Trinity of God, man would have thought of a plurality of Gods, which both religion and also sound reason abhor.

3. Therefore the Trinity of God could not be known except from revelation, thus not otherwise than from the Word; neither could it be received unless the Trinity of God were also the Unity of God, for otherwise there would be a contradiction which begets a nonentity.

4. The Trinity of God did not actually exist before the Son of God the Saviour of the world was born; and before that there was not Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.

5. The salvation of the human race depends upon the Trinity of God, which at the same time is Unity.

6. By the Trinity of God which at the same time is Unity, is meant the Divine Trinity in one Person.

7. The Lord the Saviour of the world taught that there is a Divine Trinity, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit;

For He commanded His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;

He also said that He would send to them the Holy Spirit from the Father;

He moreover oftentimes mentioned by name the Father, and called Himself His Son, and He breathed upon His disciples, saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”

Furthermore, when Jesus was baptized in Jordan there came forth a voice from the Father, saying, “This is my beloved Son,” and the Spirit appeared over Him in the form of a dove.

The angel Gabriel also said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and the Holy One that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” “The Most High” is God the Father.

The Apostles likewise in their epistles often name the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and John in his First Epistle Says, “There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit,” etc.

40. CHAPTER II.

THESE THREE, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT, ARE THREE ESSENTIALS OF ONE GOD, SINCE THEY ARE ONE, AS SOUL, BODY, AND OPERATION WITH MAN ARE ONE.

1. The Divine Trinity, which at the same time is Unity, can by no means be comprehended by any one, except as the soul, body, and proceeding operation with man; consequently unless the Divine itself which is called the Father is the Soul, the Human which is called the Son is the Body of the Soul, and the Holy Spirit is the proceeding operation.

2. Therefore in the Christian Church everywhere it is acknowledged that in Christ God and Man, that is, the Divine and the Human, are one Person, as the soul and the body in man. This is there acknowledged from the Athanasian Creed.

3. Wherefore he who comprehends the union of the soul and body and the resulting operation, comprehends the Trinity and at the same time the Unity of God, in a kind of shadow.

4. The rational man knows, or may know, that the soul of the son is from the father, and that the soul clothes itself with a body in the womb of the mother, and that afterwards all operation proceeds from both.

5. He who knows the union of the soul and body, knows also or may know that the life of the soul is in the body, and that thus the life of the body is the life of the soul.

6. Consequently that the soul lives, and therefore feels and operates, in the body and from the body; and that the body lives, feels, and operates from itself while from the soul.

7. This is because all things of the soul are of the body, and all things of the body are of the soul; hence and from no other origin is their union.

8. It is only an appearance that the soul operates separately, from itself through the body, when yet it operates in the body and from the body.

9. From these things the rational man, who knows the intercourse of the soul and the body, can comprehend these words of the Lord; that:-

The Father and He are one;

All things of the Father are His, and all His are the Father’s;

All things of the Father come to Him;

The Father hath given all things into the Son’s hand;

As the Father works, so the Son also works;

He that sees and knows the Son, sees and knows the Father also;

They who are one in the Son are one in the Father;

No one hath seen the Father except the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who hath manifested Him;

The Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father;

No one cometh to the Father except through the Son;

As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;

In Jesus Christ all the fulness of the Divinity dwells bodily;

and many other things besides.

There by the “Son” is meant the Human of the Father.

10. From these things it follows, that the Divinity and the soul of the Son of God, our Saviour, are not distinctly two, but one and the same. The Son of God is the Human of God the Father, is fully shown above; for what else did Mary, the mother, bring forth than the Human in which was the Divine from the Father? Hence from nativity He was called the “Son of God;” for the angel Gabriel said to Mary:-

The Holy One that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,

and the Holy which was born from Mary was the Human in which was the Divine from the Father.

41. CHAPTER III.

BEFORE THE WORLD WAS CREATED THE TRINITY OF GOD WAS NOT.

1. The Sacred Scripture teaches that God is one, and reason enlightened by the Lord sees it there and thence. But that God was triune before the world was created, the Sacred Scripture does not teach, and reason enlightened therefrom does not see. What is said in David concerning the Son, “This day have I begotten thee,” is not from eternity, but in the fulness of time; for the future in God is present, thus to-day; in like manner as in Isaiah:-

Unto us A Boy is born, unto us a Son is given, whose name is God, Hero, the Father of eternity.

2. What rational mind, when it hears that before the creation of the world there were three Divine Persons, called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, does not say within itself while thinking of them, “What is meant by a Son born from God the Father from eternity? How could He be born? And what is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God the Father through the Son from eternity? And how could He proceed and become God by Himself? Or how could a person beget a person from eternity? and both produce a person? Is not a person a person? How can three Persons, of which each is God, be conjoined into one God, otherwise than into one person? And yet this is contrary to theology, and this to that. How can the Divinity be divided into three Persons, and yet not into three Gods, when yet each Person is God? How can the Divine essence, which is one, the same, and indivisible, fall into number, hence be either divided or multiplied? And how can three Divine Persons be together and take counsel together in a non-extense of space, such as was before the world was created? How, from Jehovah God, who is One, and thence Sole, Infinite, Immense, Eternal, and Omnipotent, could there be produced three equals to Himself? How can a Trinity of Persons be conceived of in the Unity of God, and the Unity of God in a Trinity of Persons? Besides the idea of plurality destroys the idea of unity, and vice versa. Perhaps it would have been possible for the Greeks and Romans also to unite all their gods into one, which were many, by identity only of essence.”

3. The rational mind, in revolving and reflecting upon a Trinity of Persons in the Divinity from eternity, might also consider of what use was it that a Son was born, and that the Holy Spirit went forth from the Father through the Son before the world was created? Was there a use for three to consult how the universe should be created? And thus that three should create it? When yet the universe was created by the one God? Neither was there occasion that the Son should redeem, when yet redemption was effected after the world was created, in the fulness of time; nor that the Holy Spirit should sanctify, because as yet there was no man to be sanctified. Therefore if there were those uses in God’s idea, still they were not [realized] before the creation of the world, but after it actually existed; from which it follows, that the Trinity from eternity was not a real Trinity, but ideal, and still more so is a Trinity of Persons.

4. Who in the church, while reading the Athanasian Creed, is able to understand this? That it is of the Christian verity, that each Person by Himself is God, and yet that it is not lawful by the Catholic religion to account them three Gods? Is not religion thus to him something other than truth? and that in truth three Persons are three Gods, but that from religion they are one God?

5. A trinity of Persons in the Divinity before the world was created, did not come into the mind of any one from the time of Adam down to the advent of the Lord, as is clear from the Word of the Old Testament, and from histories concerning the religion of the ancients. Neither did it come into the mind of the Apostles, as is evident from their writings in the Word. Neither did it come into the mind of any one in the Apostolic Church, which was before the Council of Nice, as appears from the Apostles’ Creed, in which no Son from eternity is mentioned, but a Son born from the Virgin Mary. A Trinity of Persons from eternity is not only above reason, but opposed to it. It is against reason that three Persons created the universe; that there were three Persons, and each one God, and not three Gods but one, and then three Persons and not one Person. Will not the New Church about to come call this age of the old church benighted or barbarous, when they worshiped three Gods? Similarly irrational are those things which are derived from that Trinity.

6. A Trinity of Persons in the Divinity from eternity was first taught by the Nicene Council, as appears from the two Creeds, the Nicene and the Athanasian. And afterwards it was received by the churches as the principal dogma, and as the head of the doctrines, after that time even to the present day. There were two reasons why that Trinity was given forth by the Council of Nice; the first was, that they knew not how otherwise to dissipate the scandals of Arius, who denied the Divinity of the Lord; the other, because they did not understand what is written by the evangelist John (Chap. i. 1, 2, 10, 14; xvi. 28; xvii. 5). How these things are to be understood may be seen above.

7. The Divinity before the world was created as believed according to the Nicene Council and the churches after that, to consist of three Persons each of which was God, and that from the first Person was born a second, and from these two went forth a third, is not only above the understanding, but contrary to it, and the faith of a paradox, which is opposed to the rational understanding. It is a faith in which there is not anything of the church, but a persuasion of the false, such as obtains with those who are insane in religious matters. But still it is not here said of those who do not see [these things to be] contradictory and contrary to the Sacred Scripture and yet believe them, that they are insane in religious matters; thus it is not said of the Council of Nice, nor of the churches derived from it after that time, because they did not see.

42. CHAPTER IV.

THE TRINITY OF GOD CAME INTO EXISTENCE AFTER THE WORLD WAS CREATED, AND ACTUALLY IN THE FULNESS OF TIME, AND THEN IN GOD INCARNATE, WHO IS THE LORD THE SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

1. The Trinity of God did not and could not exist before the world was created; also that there are three essentials of one Person in God Man, of which the Trinity of God is predicated, has been shown above.

2. God as the Word came into the world and assumed the Human in the Virgin Mary, and the Holy One thence born was called the “Son of the Most High,” the “Son of God,” the “Only Begotten,” is known from the Old Word where it is predicted, and from the New where it is described.

3. Since therefore God the Most High, who is the Father, by His Divine proceeding which is the Holy Spirit, conceived the Human in the Virgin Mary, it follows that the Human born of that conception is the Son, and the conceiving Divine is the Father, and that both together is the Lord, God, the Saviour, Jesus Christ, God and Man.

4. It follows also that the Divine Truth, which is the Word, and in which is the Divine Good, was the seed from the Father from which the Human was conceived. The soul is from the seed, and by the soul is the body.

5. In confirmation this arcanum shall be mentioned: The spiritual origin of all human seed is truth from good, but not Divine Truth from Divine Good in its own essence, infinite and uncreate as in the Lord, but in its own form finite and created. See the Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love (n. 220, 245).

6. It is known that the soul adjoins to itself a body, which may serve it for performing uses, and afterwards it conjoins itself to the body as it serves, and this even until the soul becomes of the body, and the body of the soul. This is what the Lord says, that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him.

7. From these things it follows that the Trinity of God came into existence after the world was created, and then in God Incarnate, who is the Lord, the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

43. CHAPTER V.

THE TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE DIVINITY IS FROM THE COUNCIL OF NICE, AND WAS DERIVED THENCE INTO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND [THE CHURCHES] AFTER IT, AND IS THEREFORE TO BE CALLED THE NICENE TRINITY. BUT THE TRINITY OF GOD IN ONE PERSON, THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, IS FROM CHRIST HIMSELF, AND WAS THENCE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH, AND THEREFORE IS TO BE CALLED THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY; AND THIS TRINITY OF GOD IS THE TRINITY OF THE NEW CHURCH.

1. There are three summaries of doctrine of the Christian Church concerning the Divine Trinity and at the same time Unity, which are called the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds. The Apostles’ Creed was written by men who are called the Apostolic Fathers; the Nicene Creed, by an assembly of bishops and priests who were called together by the emperor Constantine in the city of Nice, with a view to dissipate the scandals of Arius concerning his denial of the Divinity of the Son of God; and the Athanasian Creed, by a certain person or persons after that council. These three Creeds were acknowledged and received by the Christian Church as ecumenical and catholic, that is, as the universals of doctrine respecting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2. The Apostolic Creed teaches thus:-

“I believe In God the Father Almighty, the God of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. I believe in the Holy Spirit,” etc.

The Nicene Creed teaches thus:-

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born from the Father before the ages; begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made; who came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, and became Man. And [I believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son, together is adored and glorified; who spake through the prophets.”

The Athanasian Creed teaches thus:-

“The Catholic Faith is this: We venerate one God in Trinity and

Trinity in Unity. . . . There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. . . . The Father is uncreate, immense, eternal, omnipotent, God and Lord; in like manner the Son, and in like manner the Holy Spirit; and yet there are not three uncreate, immense, eternal, omnipotent Gods and Lords, but One. . . . The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. In this Trinity none is before or after, and none is greater or less, but all the three Persons are co-eternal and co-equal. But as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods and Lords.”

Furthermore, it thus teaches concerning the Lord Jesus Christ:-

“Although He be God and Man, yet there are not two, but one Christ.”

3. From these things declared in the three creeds it may be gathered how in the understanding of each there is a Trinity of God in Unity, and a Unity in Trinity.

For the Apostolic Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe; concerning His Son, that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is.

Moreover, the Nicene Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe; concerning the Son, that He was begotten before all ages, and that He descended and became incarnate; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He proceeds from both.

But the Athanasian Creed teaches concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that they are three Persons co-eternal and co-equal, and that each of them is God, and yet that there are not three Gods, but one; and that although from the Christian verity each Person by Himself is God, yet from the Catholic religion it is not allowable to say there are three Gods.

4. From these three Creeds it appears that two Trinities are taught, one which existed before the world was created, another, which was after it; the Trinity before the world was created, in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, but the Trinity after it, in the Apostolic Creed; consequently the Apostolic Church knew nothing of a Son from eternity, but only of a Son born in the world, and thus that it invoked the latter and not the former; and, on the other hand, the church after the Nicene Creed, as if established anew, acknowledged a Son from eternity as God, but the Son born in the world not so.

5. These two Trinities differ as much from each other as evening and morning, yea, as night and day, and thus that both together can by no means be confirmed in one man of the church; because religion would perish with him, and with religion sound reason. The reason is, that from the Nicene and Athanasian Trinity God cannot be thought of as one, but in the Apostolic Trinity He can be; and He is so thought of in this, because it is given in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God born in the world.

6. The Divine Trinity is in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, He Himself teaches, for He says that:-

He and the Father are one (John x. 80).

He is in the Father, and the Father in Him (John xiv. 10, 11).

All things of the Father are His (John iii. 35 ; xvi. 15).

He that seeth Him seeth the Father, and He that believeth in Him believeth in the Father ([John xii. 44]).

And according to Paul:-

In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Divinity bodily (Col. ii. 9).

According to John:-

He is the true God and eternal life (1 Epis. v. 20).

And according to Isaiah:-

He is the Father of eternity (ix. 5).

And in other places in the same prophet, where it treats of Him, it is said: “He is Jehovah the Redeemer,” “the only God,” and that from redemption “He is Jehovah our Justice,” and that He is “God the Father” where He is spoken of; that “He will not give His glory to another;” and that the “Holy Spirit is from Him.”

Now because God is one, and because there is a Divine Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to the Lord’s words (Matt. xxviii.), it follows that the Trinity is in one Person, and in the Person of Him who was conceived of God the Father and born of the Virgin Mary, and thence was called the “Son of the Highest,” the “Son of God,” the “Only Begotten Son” (Luke i. 31-35; John i. 18; xx. 34; Matt. iii. 17; xvi 16; xvii. 5). In all these and in the above cited passages, no Son from eternity is meant, is evident to both the internal and external sight.

Since therefore this Divine Trinity (which is also the fulness of the Divinity dwelling in Him bodily, according to Paul) is in the Lord God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, it follows that He alone is to be approached, invoked, and worshiped, and that when this is done, at the same time the Father is approached, and [thus the man] receives the Holy Spirit; for He teaches that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one cometh to the Father but by Him, and that he that entereth not by Him as the door into the sheepfold (that is, into the church), is not a shepherd, but a thief and a robber; and also that they who believe in Him have eternal life, and that they who believe not shall not see life (John iii. 15, 16, 36; vi. 40; xl. 25, 26; 1 John v. 20).

7. Since the Divine Trinity and at the same time the Divine Unity is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, this is the Trinity of the New Church.

[When the two copies were transcribed, two leaves containing Chapters VI. and VII. were already wanting at this part of the autograph. But of Chapter VII., articles n. 6, 7, 8 were still there. These may be seen just below.]

[CHAPTER VI.]

[DISCORDANT IDEAS DERIVED FROM THE NICENE TRINITY.]

44. [CHAPTER VII.]

[THIS TRINITY HAS PERVERTED THE CHURCH.]

6. The nature or quality of this is described by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar, as to its feet, and by the last beast that went up out of the sea, in Daniel, and by the dragon and his two beasts in the Apocalypse.

7. It may also be seen from this arcanum revealed to me, that every one is allotted a place in heaven, that is, in its societies, according to his idea of God; and every one in the hells according to his denial of God; moreover, that the denial of one God inheres in the ideas of those who have confirmed themselves in the Athanasian* Trinity.

8. A true soul and life is in that man of the church who acknowledges the Lord the Son of God as the God of heaven and earth. That He is the God of heaven and earth, He Himself teaches in Matthew, and that He is the true God and eternal life, in John, and that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Divinity, according to Paul, and that He is Jehovah our Redeemer, the only God, yea, the Father of eternity, according to Isaiah.

* In Nordenskjold’s copy it is “Apostolic,” in another handwriting, “Athanasian.”

45. CHAPTER VIII.

THE CONFIRMATION OF A TRINITY OF PERSONS FROM ETERNITY, OF WHICH EACH IS GOD, ACCORDING TO THE NICENE AND ATHANASIAN CREEDS, HAS FALSIFIED THE WHOLE WORD.

1. Every heretic can confirm and does confirm his heresy by the Word, since this is written by appearances and correspondences, wherefore the Word is called by some the book of all heresies.

2. After confirmation a man sees no otherwise than that his dogmas are true, although they are false.

3. A plurality of Gods may be confirmed by many things from the Word; also the imputative faith of Christ’s merit, in which three Gods severally have their part; as likewise that the works of charity contribute nothing to faith, and thus to salvation.

4. A plurality of Gods may be confirmed from these things: A Trinity is mentioned by the Lord; there appeared to be a Trinity when the Lord was baptized. There are “three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.” Jehovah God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Three angels appeared to Abraham who are called Jehovah. In the New Word, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are often named by the Lord in the Evangelists, and by the Apostles in the Epistles, and yet it is not there said that they are one.

Likewise [there is a] faith imputative of Christ’s merit, and this faith alone is saving; and that the works of charity do not conduce to salvation; to which may be added, that a mind prone to ratiocination may add to them creeds of its own and establish them.

5. Each and all these cannot be seen to be false, and thus cannot be dissipated, unless reason enlightened by the Lord shall confirm by means of the Word that God is one, and that there is a conjunction of charity and faith.

6. When this is done, it may appear clearly that a theology founded upon a Trinity of Persons, of which each one is God, and upon a faith directed to each separately, and also upon charity as of no avail to salvation, has falsified the entire Word; mainly because these three, God, charity, and faith, are together the universals of religion, to which all and each thing of the Word, and thence of heaven and the Church, relate.

7. Hence results this enormity, that the confirmer, wherever he reads of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, yea, wherever he reads Jehovah and God, thinks of three Gods, because of one from three; also wherever he reads faith, he thinks of no other faith than what is imputative of Christ’s merit; and wherever he reads charity, he thinks of it as not contributing anything to salvation, or thinks of that faith instead of it. Confirmation once fixed brings this with it.

46. CHAPTER IX.

HENCE THERE IS THAT AFFLICTION AND THAT DESOLATION IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, WHICH WERE PREDICTED BY THE LORD IN THE Evangelists, AND IN Daniel.

1. The Lord, when He spoke with the disciples concerning the consummation of the age, and concerning His own advent, that is, concerning the end of the church of this day and the beginning of the New Church, predicted these things:-

There will then be great affliction such as was not from the beginning

of the world till now, nor ever shall be (Matt. xxiv. 21).

Also that there would be:-

The abomination of desolation foretold by the prophet Daniel; for after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matt. xxiv. 15, 29).

2. That there is such an affliction and desolation in the church is utterly unknown and unseen in the world, because it is everywhere said therein that they are in the light itself of the Gospel, to such a degree that if an angel were to descend from heaven and teach anything else, he would not be believed. That thus the Roman Catholic and the Greek Churches teach, and thus each of the three Reformed Churches distinguished by the name of their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, and in like manner each heretical sect, which sects are manifold.

3. But this predicted affliction and desolation appears in clear light in the spiritual world* since all men after death come into that world, and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world; for the light there is spiritual light, which discloses all things.

4. When the clergy are there interrogated concerning God, concerning faith, and concerning charity, which are the three essentials of the church and thence of salvation, they answer scarcely otherwise than as blind men in pits. Concerning God they answer that He is one, and that there are three who are unanimous; and when they say that the three are one they are commanded to speak as they think, then, because thought and speech with those who are in the spiritual world, act as one they utter, with a clear voice, three Gods. As to faith, they reply that it is a faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and that God the Father gives it, the Son mediates it, and the Holy Spirit operates it, thus in three Gods in order.** When further interrogated respecting that faith, whether they know its sign when it enters, and the sign that it is within, they reply, “What is it to know a sign? Is not this faith from the good pleasure, from the election of that one God only, and nothing from the man mixed up with it?” When asked whether that faith, since it is directed to three, and thus to three Gods, and man is in plenary ignorance concerning it, is anything, they reply that it is not only something, but the all of the church and the all of salvation. If asked whether that is possible, at this they laugh. As to charity, they say this is where that faith is, and that it is separate from it and not separate, and that it contributes to salvation and does not contribute.

5. When the laity are questioned concerning God, faith, and charity, they know almost nothing, except that a few have acquired some enigmas from the clergy which they call articles of faith, and which are in general that God the Father has mercy on account of the passion of His Son, and that He remits sins and justifies.

6. When these two classes are explored as to whether they have anything of God, of faith, and of charity in themselves, it is perceived that they have nothing, consequently nothing of heaven, of the church and of salvation, only with those who have done goods from religion, since these, in the spiritual world, are receptive of faith in the Lord God the Saviour.

7. From the few things above adduced, it appears whence there is that “great affliction such as was not from the beginning of the world nor shall be,” and whence that “abomination of desolation” which the Lord foretold would be at the end of the church, which is at this day.

8. Such an affliction has not been from the beginning of the world, nor shall be, is because the Gentiles and the Jews themselves were ignorant of the Lord God the Saviour, as the fountain of salvation, and ignorance excuses; but the case is otherwise with Christians after His Advent, to whom this [truth] is laid open in the Word of both Testaments.

* [NOTE FROM THE MARGIN.]

And He now appears to me in most splendid light in London of the natural world.

** Dr. Tafel has, “De fide respondent, quod sit in Deum Patrem, Deum Filium, et Deum Spiritum Sanctum; et quod Deus Pater illam det, Filius illam mediat, et Spiritus Sanctus illam operetur, ita ordine in tres Deos. Dr. Worcester omits this clause.

47. CHAPTER X.

UNLESS A NEW CHURCH EXIST, WHICH SHALL ABOLISH THE FAITH OF THE OLD CHURCH, WHICH IS IN THREE GODS, AND INTRODUCE A NEW ONE WHICH IS A FAITH IN ONE GOD, THUS IN THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, NOT ANY FLESH CAN BE SAVED, ACCORDING TO THE LORD’S WORDS.

1. The Lord, when He spake with the disciples concerning the consummation of the age and His coming, that is, concerning the end of the church of the present day and then the beginning of the New Church, after describing the desolation and affliction, said:-

Unless those days were shortened no flesh could be saved (Matt. xxiv. 21, 22).

That is, would altogether perish in eternal death.

2. No flesh could be saved unless that affliction and the abomination of desolation were removed, is because through the faith of the church of the present day there is no conjunction with God, and thence no salvation; for this depends solely upon conjunction with God, yea, that conjunction is salvation.

3. Through the faith of the church of the present day there is no conjunction with God, because that faith is a faith in three Gods, and a faith unless it is in one God, does not conjoin; also because that faith is in God the Father, who is inaccessible; and also in the Son born from eternity, who is likewise inaccessible, since He is of the same essence with the Father, and likewise in the Holy Spirit; and because, there was no Son nor Holy Spirit from eternity, the faith in these two is [a faith] in no God. Add to this, that the faith of the present day cannot be united with charity, and faith not united with charity, thus alone, does not conjoin. Hence it follows that unless the New Church be established by the Lord, which shall abolish that faith and teach a new one, namely, a faith which is in one God, and which is at the same time united with charity, not any flesh could be preserved, that is, not any man could be saved.

4. The faith of the present day has destroyed the entire church and has falsified the whole Word has been shown above. Wherefore unless the New Church be established by the Lord, which shall restore both the church and the Word to its integrity, not any flesh can be preserved.

5. Those who are in the faith of the church of the present day are meant by the “dragon” and the “false prophet,” and that faith itself by the “pit of the abyss” from which the locusts issued, as also by the “great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt,” where the two witnesses were slain, is shown in the Apocalypse Revealed; likewise that by the “New Jerusalem” the New Church is meant. [See Apoc., Cap. ix., xi., xii., xx., xxi.]

Since it is there said that after the dragon and the false prophet were cast into hell, the New Jerusalem descended from God out of heaven, it is evident that after the faith of the church of the present day is condemned, the New Church from the New Heaven will descend from the Lord and be established.

6. From these things it is evident that unless the New Church exist which shall abolish the faith in three Gods, and receive a faith in one God, thus in the Lord Jesus Christ, and which at the same time, conjoins this faith with charity into one form, not any flesh could be saved.

7. It may also be seen above (Chap. viii.) that redemption could not be effected, nor salvation thence be given, except by God incarnate, thus by no other than God, the Redeemer, Jesus Christ; for salvation is perpetual redemption. It was shown moreover that God, faith, and charity are three essentials of the church, and that upon them universal theology, and thus the church, depends. Wherefore when falsities are taught and imbibed in respect to these three essentials, man has no salvation.

7. Minor clause. No one can hereafter come into heaven unless he be in the doctrine of the New Church as to faith and life. The reason is, that the New Heaven which is now being established by the Lord, is in faith and life according to that doctrine.

CHAPTER XI.

THE DIVINE TRINITY IS IN THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, AND THEREFORE THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR IS ALONE TO BE APPROACHED, IN ORDER THAT THERE MAY BE SALVATION OR ETERNAL LIFE.*

* [ANNOTATIONS OF THE AUTHOR]

These things are explained according to the contents in the following numbers-Of the Sacred Scripture (n. 13. etc.). From the doctrine of the church of this day it follows that the Lord has no power, since the Father alone imputes His merit, and that in Himself He intercedes and prays that He [the Father] may do this; and they do not remember that [the Lord] said that all things of the Father are His; and that all things of the Father come to Him, and that He has all power over flesh and all power over heaven and earth. The Lord is the head of the church, and the church is His body. Wherefore He who is its Head, is to be approached by the body.

[The rest could not be found, when this treatise was copied from the autograph.-Ed.]