Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/99

 This is declared in the Apocalypse: "I saw," says John, "the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." "Come," said the angel, "I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife; and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven." Thus, it was the City that was the Lord's Bride: now, a city signifies the Church as to Doctrine: hence, then, by the Church, our spiritual Mother, is signified the System of Doctrinal Truth, revealed from the Lord out of heaven. And by the command to honor it, that is, to respect and love it, is meant that we are to prize the Doctrines of the New Church, as the great means of our regeneration; that we are to love these truths, study them, and take heed to them in our lives and conduct. This is to honor our Mother. And to honor our Father, is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, in his Divine Humanity, as the one God of heaven and earth.

And now, in conclusion, we have to consider the promise appended to this Commandment,—the reward that is held up as a motive for obedience to it:—"That thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." To the Israelites, who understood this Commandment only in its literal sense, the land here mentioned meant the land of Canaan. But by the land of Canaan, in the spiritual sense, is signified heaven, the Lord's Kingdom; and by the prolongation of days there is signified eternal life in