Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/169

Rh and in general, redemption, salvation, reformation, and regeneration are treated of, He calls Himself the Son of Man. (L. n. 22.)

Since the Lord alone reforms and regenerates men, therefore He is called in the Word the Former from the womb, as in Isaiah: "Jehovah, thy Maker and Former from the womb, helpeth thee" (xliv. 2, 24); again: "Jehovah hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother He hath remembered my name. . . . Thus saith Jehovah, my Former from the womb, for his servant, to bring back Jacob unto Himself; and Israel shall be gathered to Him" (xlix. 1, 5). In many parts of the Word the Lord is called the Creator, Maker, and Former from the womb, and also Redeemer; because He creates man anew, reforms, regenerates and redeems him. It may be supposed that the Lord is so called because He created man, and forms him in the womb; but it is a spiritual creation and formation which is there meant; for the Word is not only natural, but also spiritual. (A. E. n. 710.)

In the Word of the Old Testament, where Jehovah, the Lord Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, Lord, Jehovah God, God, in the plural and singular, the God of Israel, the Holy One of Israel, the King of Israel, Creator, Saviour, Redeemer, Schaddai, Rock, and so on, are mentioned, by all these names not many are meant, but one; for the Lord is thus variously named according to His Divine attributes (ib. n. 852).

That the profoundest mysteries lie hidden in the internal sense of the Word very manifestly appears from the internal sense of the two names of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Few have any other idea, when these names are mentioned, than that they are proper names, and almost like the names of another man, but more holy. The more learned indeed know that Jesus signifies Saviour, and Christ, the Anointed, and hence conceive a somewhat more interior idea. But yet these are not the things which the angels in heaven perceive from those names; they are still more Divine. By the name Jesus, when pronounced by man in reading the Word, they perceive the Divine good; and by the name Christ, the Divine truth; and by both, the Divine marriage of good and truth, and of truth and good. (A. C. n. 3004)

The first and chief thing of a church is to know and acknowledge its God; for without that knowledge and acknowledgment 11