Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/508

412 the Lord's words in Matt. xxiv. 15, 30. Similar things are said in the Apocalypse: "The seventh angel sounded; then there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms [of this world] are become [the kingdom] of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ages of ages" (xi. 15).

Moreover the other prophets have, in many places, predicted of this church what its character will be; from which these few passages shall be adduced. In Zechariah: "There shall be one day which shall be known to Jehovah, not day nor night, . . . for about the time of evening there shall be light. In that day living waters shall go forth out of Jerusalem, . . . and Jehovah shall be King over all the earth. In that day shall there be one Jehovah, and His name one" (xiv. 7-9). In Joel: "It shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, . . . and Jerusalem shall remain to generation and generation" (iii. 18, 20). In Jeremiah: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered together, on account of the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart" (iii. 17; Rev. xxi. 24, 26). In Isaiah: "Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; its stakes shall never be removed, and its cords shall not be broken" (xxxiii. 20). In these passages by Jerusalem is meant the holy New Jerusalem described in Rev. xxi., which means the New Church. Again in Isaiah: "There shall go forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, . . . and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and truth the girdle of His thighs. Wherefore the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together; . . . and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand over the den of the cockatrice. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all the mountain of My holiness; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah. . . . In that day there shall be a Root out of Jesse, which standeth for an ensign of the people; after it shall the Gentiles seek; and His rest shall be glorious" (xi. 1, 5-10). That such things have not yet come to pass in the churches, much less in the last, is well known. In Jeremiah: "Behold the days come, . . . in which I will make a new covenant. . . . And this shall be the covenant: . . . I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; . . . they shall all know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest of them" (xxxi. 31-34; Rev. xxi. 3). That these things have not hitherto taken place in the