Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/158

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THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD.

the year of My redeemed is come." Again in Isaiah: "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it sustained Him; and He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance, and covered Himself with zeal as with a cloak. . . . Then cometh the Redeemer to Zion" (lix. 16, 17, 20). In Jeremiah: "Theiy were dismayed, . . . their mighty ones were beaten down; they fled apace; they looked not back; this day is to the Lord Jehovah of Hosts a day of vengeance, that He may take vengeance on His enemies; the sword shall devour and be satiated" (xlvi. 5, 10). Both of these passages relate to the Lord's conflict against the hells, and victory over them. In David: "Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, Mighty; . . . Thine arrows are sharp; the people shall fall under Thee, from the heart of the King's enemies; Thy throne . . . is for ever and ever. . . . Thou hast loved righteousness, therefore God hath anointed Thee" (Psa. xlv. 3-7); also in many other places. Since the Lord alone conquered the hells, without help from any angel, therefore He is called a Hero and a Man of Wars (Isa. xliv. 15; ix. 6); The King of Glory, Jehovah the Mighty, the Hero of War (Psa. xiv. 8, 10); The Mighty One of Jacob (cxxxii. 2); and in many places Jehovah Sabaoth, that is, Jehovah of Hosts. And also His advent is called the day of Jehovah, terrible, cruel, a day of indignation, of wrath, of anger, of vengeance, of ruin, of war, of a trumpet, of a loud noise, of tumult. In the Evangelists it is said: "Now is the judgment of this world: the prince of this world shall he cast out" (John xii. 31); "The prince of this world is judged" (xvi. 11); "Be assured I have overcome the world" (xvi. 33); "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke x. 18). By the world, the prince of the world, Satan, and the Devil, is meant hell. (T. C. R. n. 116.)

It is known in the Church that the Lord is the Saviour and Redeemer of the human race; but how this is to be understood is known by few. They who are in the externals of the Church believe that the Lord redeemed the world, that is the human race, by His blood, by which they understand the passion of the Cross. But those that are in the internal [truths] of the Church know that no one is saved by the Lord's blood, but by a life according to the precepts of faith and charity from the Lord's Word. Those who are in the inmost [truths] of the Church, understand by the Lord's blood the Divine Truth proceeding from Him, and by the passion of the cross they understand the last of the Lord's temptation, by which He entirely subjugated the hells, and at the same time glorified His Human, that is made it Divine; and that thereby He