Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/178

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

these objects any other kind of love than that of promoting thereby his love of God."

As thoughts on religion filled his mind he became full of zeal to instruct others. "Afterward I seemed to say to myself that the Lord Himself will instruct me. For, as I discovered, I am in such a state that I know nothing on this subject except that Christ must be all in all, or God through Christ, so that we of ourselves cannot contribute the least toward it, and still less strive for it: wherefore it is best to surrender at discretion, and were it possible to be altogether passive in this matter, it would be a state of perfection. I saw also in a vision how some beautiful bread was presented to me on a plate. This was a prediction that the Lord Himself will instruct me, as soon as I have attained that state in which I shall know nothing, and in which all my preconceived notions will be removed from me; which is the first state of learning: or in other words that I must first become a child, and that then I shall be able to be nurtured in knowledge, as is being done with me now."

On the 27th of October he began the work on the Worship and Love of God, and laid aside,

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