Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/150

54 falsities, for these are from the hells,—is said to carry sins, for He alone sustains that burden. By carrying sins is also signified the removal of evils and falsities from those who are in good; because this is a consequence. For so far as the hells are removed from man evils and falsities are removed; for both, as was said, are from the hells. Evils and falsities are sins and iniquities. . . . That by carrying diseases, griefs, and iniquities, and by being thrust through and bruised by them, a state of temptation is signified is evident; for in temptation there are griefs of mind, straitness, and despair, which cause anguish. Such things are induced by the hells; for in temptations they assault the love itself of him against whom they fight. The love of every one is the inmost of his life. The Lord's love was the love of saving the human race; which love was the Being of His life, for the Divine in Himself was that love. It is so described too in Isaiah, where the Lord's combats are spoken of in these words: "He said, Surely they are My people; . . . therefore He became a Saviour to them; in all their affliction He was afflicted; . . . in His love and His clemency He redeemed them, and took them, and carried them all the days of eternity " (Lxiii. 8, 9). That the Lord endured such temptations when He was in the world, is described in few places in the Evangelists, but in many places in the Prophets, and especially in the Psalms of David. In the Evangelists it is only said that He was led away into the wilderness, and afterwards was tempted of the Devil; and that He was there forty days, and was with the beasts (Mark i. 12, 13; Matt. iv. 1). But that He was in temptations, that is in combats with the hells, from earliest childhood to the end of His life in the world. He did not reveal,—according to these words in Isaiah: "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth" (liii. 7). His last temptation was in Gethsemane (Matt, xxvi.; Mark xiv.), and afterwards the passion of the cross. That by this He fully subdued the hells He Himself teaches in John: "Father, deliver Me from this hour; but for this [cause] came I to this hour; Father, glorify Thy name. There came a voice from heaven, [saying] I have both glorified and will glorify [it]." Then Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (xii. 27, 28, 31). The prince of this world is the Devil, thus all hell; to glorify is to make the Human Divine. The reason why only the temptation after forty days in the wilderness is mentioned is, that forty days signify and involve temptations to the full, thus of many years; the wilderness signifies hell; and the beasts with which He fought there, the diabolical crew. (A. C. n. 9937.)