other names. He is acknowledged and adored as the Lord throughout all heaven, because he has all power in heaven and earth. He also commanded his disciples so to call him, when he said, "Ye call me—Lord, and ye say well, for so I am," (John xiii. 13.) And after his resurrection his disciples called him Lord.
15. Throughout all heaven they know no other Father than the Lord, because he and the Father are one,—as he himself said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life.—Philip saith, Lord, show us the Father.—Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?—Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." (John xiv. 6, 8—11.)
16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The most ancient time is called the beginning; by the prophets it is usually called the ancient days, and also the days of eternity. The beginning also implies the first time when man is regenerating, for then he is born anew and receives life: it is from this ground that regeneration is called a new creation of man. To create, to form, to make, in almost all parts of the prophetic writings, signify to regenerate, yet with a difference of signification; as in Isaiah; "Every one that is called by my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." (xliii. 7.) Wherefore the Lord is called the Redeemer, the Former from the womb, the Maker, and also the Creator; as in the same prophet: "I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your king," (xliii. 15.) And in David : "The people which shall be createdshall praise the Lord," (Psalm cii. 18.) And in the same: "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth," (civ. 30.) That heaven signifies the internal man, and earth, before regeneration, the external, may be seen from what follows.
17. Verse 2. And the earth was vacuity and emptiness, and darkness was upon the faces of the abyss. And the spirit of God moved upon the faces of the waters. Man before regeneration is called earth, void, and empty, and also ground, wherein nothing that is good or true is sown; it is said to be void where there is nothing of good, and empty where there is nothing of the true. Hence comes darkness, or a dulness and ignorance as to all things which belong to faith in the Lord, consequently, respecting spiritual and celestial life. ' Man in this state is thus described by the Lord in Jeremiah : "My people is foolish, they have not known me: they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and lo, it was vacuity and emptiness: and the heavens, and they had no light," (iv. 22, 23.)
