REDEMPTION.

SUMMARY.

[I. The Church Declines Successively from Good to Evil. II. The End of the Church Is when the Power of Evil and of Hell Is Over Good and of Heaven. III. In Like Manner the Church Wanders from the Internal to the External. IV. A Description of the End and Progression, in the Word. V. Then a Total Damnation Threatens. VI. The Lord Redeemed Men and Angels. VII. The Temptations of the Lord the Christ. VIII. Redemption Is Not Possible except by God Incarnate.]

CHAPTER I.

IN PROCESS OF TIME THE CHURCH DEPARTS FROM THE GOOD OF CHARITY, AND THEN TO FALSITIES OF FAITH, AND DIES.

1. There is a church in the heavens, and a church on the earths, and they constitute a one, like the internal and external with man. 2. The church in both worlds is together before the Lord, and appears before the angels as one man. 3. Hence the church can be compared to a man; who is at first an infant, next a youth, afterwards a man, and lastly an old man. 4. While the church is an infant, it is in the good of charity; while a youth and man it is in the truths of faith from that good; and when an old man it is in the marriage of charity and faith. 5. The church, while it is and remains such, endures to eternity; but otherwise, if it recedes from the good of charity of its infancy. 6. If the church recedes from the good of charity of its infancy, it becomes involved in thick darkness as to truths, and falls into falsities, like a blind man into a pit. 7. The four essentials of the church are,-the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the goods of charity, the knowledge of the truths of faith, and life according to them. 8. When the church recedes from charity, it also recedes from these four; and then falsities flow in concerning God, concerning charity, concerning faith, and concerning worship. 9. These flow into the primates of the church, and from them into the people, as from the head into the body. 10. There are two causes why falsities flow into the primates of the church, and flow forth from them: one is the love of ruling from the love of self; the other is intelligence from the proprium, and not from the Sacred Scripture. 11. Then from one falsity there flow forth falsities in a continuous series, and this until nothing of truth remains. 12. The Sacred Scripture, while it is applied to confirm those things, is then wholly falsified, and thus the church perishes.