Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 883

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883. 'And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and He Himself shall be with them their God' signifies the Lord's conjunction, which is such that they are in Him and He in them. By 'He will dwell with them' is signified the Lord's conjunction with them, concerning which [something] follows. By [the statement] that 'they shall be His people, and He Himself shall be with them their God' is signified that they are the Lord's, and the Lord is theirs; and because by 'to dwell with them' is signified conjunction, it is signified that they shall be in the Lord and the Lord in them, otherwise no conjunction is effected. That such is the case is clearly evident from the Lord's words in John:-

Abide in Me and I in you. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for without Me you cannot do anything John xv 4, 5;

and elsewhere:-

In that day you shall recognise that I am in My Father, and you in Me and I in you John xiv 20.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him John vi 56.

[2] That the assumption of the Human, and the uniting of It with the Divine that was in Himself from birth and is called 'the Father', had for an end a conjunction with men is plain also in John:-

For them I am making Myself holy, that they also may be made holy in the truth (veritas), that they may be one as we are one, I in them, Thou in Me John xvii 19, 21, 22, 26;

from which it is established that the conjunction is with the Lord's Divine Human, and that it is reciprocal, and that thus and not otherwise there is a conjunction with the Divine that is called 'the Father'. [3] The Lord also teaches that conjunction is effected by means of the truths of the Word and by a life in accordance with them (John xiv 20-24; xv 7). This therefore is what is understood by 'He shall dwell with them and they shall be His people, and He Himself shall be with them their God'. In like manner elsewhere where the same words are (Jer. vii 23; xi 4; xxiv7; xxx 22; Ezek. xi 20; xiv 11; xxxvi 28; xxxvii 23, 27; Zech. viii 8; Exod. xxix 45). [4] The reason why by 'to dwell with them' is signified conjunction with them is because 'to dwell' signifies a conjunction out of love, as can be established from many passages in the Word; also from the dwellings of the angels in heaven. Heaven is distinguished into innumerable societies, the distinction among them all being in accordance with the differences of the affections that are of love, generally and specifically. Any one society is one species of affection, and they dwell there distinctly in accordance with the relationships and affinities of that species of affection, and in one house those who are most closely related. Consequently 'cohabitation' when said of married partners, in the spiritual sense signifies conjunction through love. It should be known that conjunction with the Lord is one thing, and His presence another. Conjunction with the Lord is not granted except to those who approach Him directly; to the rest, presence only. * The Latin word proprium (plural propria) means 'what is one's own'. Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving 'what is of the self'.


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