Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/170

74 there is no conjunction; thus there is none in the church without the acknowledgment of the Lord. (H. D. n. 296.)

The very essential of the church is the acknowledgment of the union of the very Divine in the Human of the Lord, and this must be in each and all things of worship. The reason why this is the essential of the church, and hence the essential of worship, is because the salvation of the human race depends solely on that union. (A. C. n. 10370.)

The chief thing of the church is to acknowledge the Lord, His Divine [nature] in the Human, and His omnipotence in saving the human race; for by this acknowledgment man is conjoined to the Divine, since the Divine is nowhere else. Even there is the Father, for the Father is in Him and He is in the Father, as the Lord Himself teaches; they therefore who look to another Divine [being] near Him, or at His side,—as is usual with those who pray to the Father to have mercy on them for the sake of the Son,—turn aside from the way, and adore a Divine elsewhere than in Him. And, moreover, they then think nothing about the Lord's Divine [nature], but only of His Human, which yet cannot be separated; for the Divine and Human are not two but one only Person, conjoined as the soul and the body,—according to the doctrine received by the churches from the faith of Athanasius. Therefore to acknowledge the Divine in the Human [nature] of the Lord, or the Divine Human, is the chief thing of the church, by which conjunction is effected; and as it is the chief it is also the first thing of the church. It was because this is the first thing of the church that the Lord when He was in the world so often asked those whom He healed whether they believed that He was able to do this, and when they answered that they believed, said, "According to your faith be it unto you." This He so often said, in order that they might first believe that He had Divine omnipotence from his Divine Human; for without that faith the church could not have been begun; and without that faith they would not have been conjoined to the Divine, but separated from it, and so could receive nothing of good from Him. Afterwards the Lord taught them how they might be saved, namely, that they should receive Divine truth from Him; and this is received when it is applied, and implanted in the life by doing it. Hence the Lord so often said they should do His words. It is therefore manifest that these two, namely, believing in the Lord and doing His words, make one, and that they can by no means be separated; for he that does not the Lord's words does not believe in Him. And he who imagines that He believes in the Lord, and does not His words, does not believe in Him; for the Lord is in His words, that is in His truths, and from them the Lord gives faith to