6. Verse 2. Who testified the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, signifies who, from the heart, and thus in the light, receive the Divine truth from the Word, and acknowledge the Lord's Human to be Divine. It is said of John that "he testified the Word of God," but as by John are meant all who are in the good of life from charity and its faith, as was said above (n. 5), therefore in the spiritual sense all these are meant. The angels, who are in the spiritual sense of the Word, never know any name of a person mentioned in the Word, but only that which the person represents and thence signifies, which, instead of John, is the good of life, or good in act; consequently all in the aggregate who are in that good. These "testify," that is, see, acknowledge, receive from the heart in the light, and confess the truths of the Word, especially that truth therein that the Lord's Human is Divine; which may be evident from the passages quoted from the Word in great abundance in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord. By "Jesus Christ" and by "the Lamb" in the Apocalypse is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human, and by "God," the Lord as to His Divine, from which are all things. [2] With regard to the spiritual signification of "testifying," this is predicated of truth, because in the world the truth is to be testified, and when it is testified, it is acknowledged. But in heaven truth testifies of itself because it is itself the light of heaven. For when the angels hear the truth, they immediately know and acknowledge it; and because the Lord is the truth itself, as He Himself teaches in John 14:6, He is in heaven the testimony of Himself. Hence it may appear what is meant by "the testimony of Jesus Christ"; wherefore the Lord says:
Ye sent unto John, and he testified unto the truth; but I receive not testimony from man (John 5:33-34). And in another place:
John came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light; he was not that Light; the Word which was with God, and was God, and became flesh, was the true Light, which lighteth every man (John 1:1-2, 7-8, 14, 34). And in another place:
Jesus said, Though I testify of Myself, yet My testimony is true, for I know whence I came, and whither I go (John 8:14). When the Comforter has come, even the Spirit of truth, He shall testify of Me (John 15:26). By the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is meant the truth itself proceeding from the Lord, wherefore it is said of it that it will not speak from itself, but from the Lord (John 16:13-15).
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