Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/54

50 him, and he is become a subject of the heavenly marriage. There are many varieties of good, which may all be comprehended in the general division into celestial, spiritual, and natural good. The two first carry with them a saving power; but the last possesses no such power, unless it be receptive of, and qualified by, a certain degree of spiritual or celestial life. There are also many varieties of truth; every truth, that is really and spiritually such, being either directly or indirectly derived from good, and at the same time a form thereof. But many things appear to be good and true, which yet in reality are not, or at least not in the degree at first apprehended: hence a further distinction may be made between genuine good and truth, and such as are only apparent. This may be illustrated by a most familiar mode of expression adopted in regard to natural things. Both in speaking and writing, nothing is more common, than to ascribe motion to the sun in it's rising and setting, which yet belongs only to the earth. So in the Sacred Scriptures it is frequently said, that God is angry, punishes, casts into hell, and the like; when yet those expressions are to be interpreted in reference to the wicked, and not to the Lord, who is pure love and mercy towards all his creatures. The former then is an apparent truth, and the latter a genuine truth. The kinds and qualities of each are discernible to an enlightened understanding, acting under the influence of a pure affection. What has been said of good and truth, may be justly applied in a reversed sense to evil and falsehood. For as every thing in the universe, which exists according to divine order, has relation to good and truth, so every thing, which exists contrary to divine order, has relation to evil and falsehood. And again,