THIS DIVINE TRUTH IS MEANT BY "THE WORD WHICH WAS MADE FLESH" (John i.).*

1. The Word, in the Sacred Scripture, signifies various things; as that it signifies a thing which really exists; also the thought of the mind, and thence speech. 2. In the first place it signifies everything which exists and proceeds from the mouth of God; thus the Divine Truth; and hence the Sacred Scripture, since the Divine Truth is there in its essence and its form. It is on this account that the Sacred Scripture is called in one term "The Word." 3. "The Ten Words" of the Decalogue signify all Divine truths in a summary. 4. Hence the "Word" signifies the Lord the Redeemer and Saviour, since all things there are from Him: thus Himself. 5. From these things it can be seen, that by the "Word," which was "in the beginning with God, and which was God," and which "was with God before the world," is meant the Divine Truth, which was before creation in Jehovah, and after creation from Jehovah; and lastly the Divine Human, which Jehovah assumed in time; for it is said that "the Word was made flesh," that is, Man. 6. The hypostatic Word is nothing else than Divine Truth. * [ANNOTATIONS FROM THE MARGIN.] HYPOSTATIC WORD. The Son could not call Himself God, thus the Father. No "Son of God from eternity" could descend, according to the statements of the doctrine of the church of this day. Since it is evident:

(1) He could not call Him His Father. (2) Nor say that all things of the Father were His. (3) He who sees Him, sees the Father. (4) At His baptism and at His Transformation God the Father could not say, "This is My beloved Son" (Matt iii. 17; xvii. 5). (Besides many more passages in the Word of the Old Testament concerning the Lord's Coming, collected in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord (n. 6); and there, that Jehovah would come.)