Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/463



The reason why that people is called in the Word the people of Jehovah, the chosen and beloved nation, is that by Judah there the celestial church is meant, by Israel the spiritual church, and something of the church by all the sons of Jacob; and by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord Himself also is meant, as well as by Moses, Aaron, and David. (A. C. n. 10,396.)

The character of that nation is such, that above all other nations they adore external things, thus idols; and that they wish to know nothing at all about internal things. For of all nations they are the most avaricious; and avarice such as theirs, by which gold and silver are loved for the sake of gold and silver, and not for the sake of any use, is an affection the most earthly, and draws the mind down entirely into and immerses it in the body, and so closes the interiors that nothing at all of faith and love from heaven can enter. It is therefore plain how much they err who believe that nation will again be chosen, or that the Lord's church will pass again to them, others being rejected,—when yet you shall convert stones to faith in the Lord before them. It is believed the church will pass again to them, because in many places in the prophetical parts of the Word it is said that they are to return; and it is not known that by Judah, by Jacob, and by Israel there, that nation is not meant, but those with whom the church exists. (A. C. n. 8301.)

In Jeremiah it is written: "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. . . . Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. . . . But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith Jehovah, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it upon their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall he My people" (xxxi. 27, 31, 33). By the coming days here the advent of the Lord is meant; and therefore it is not meant that a new covenant would then be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, but with a new church that was to be established by the Lord,—which is meant by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah in whose inward parts the law would be put, and upon whose hearts it would be written. It is well known that this did not take place with the house of,