Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 177[8] I once spoke with spirits who when they lived in the worldwere of the popish religion, and I asked whether in the world theyever thought about the Divine of the Lord. They said that theythought about it whenever they saw from doctrine, and that theythen acknowledged his Divine to be equal with the Divine of theFather, but that apart from doctrine, they thought of his humanonly, and not of his Divine. They were asked why they say that thepower which his human had was given to it by the Father and notby himself, since they acknowledged his Divine to be equal withthat of the Father. At this they turned away, making no answer.But it was said to them, that it was because they transferred tothemselves all his Divine power, and that they could not have donethis unless they had separated the Divine from the human. Thatwith them the Lord has been rejected, everyone may conclude fromthis, that they worship the pope instead of the Lord, and that theyno longer attribute any power to the Lord.[9] I will here also mention a great scandal heard from the popecalled Benedict XIV. He openly declared that when he lived in theworld he believed that the Lord had no power, because he hadtransferred it all to Peter, and after him to his successors; adding hisbelief that their saints have more power than the Lord, because theyhold it from God the Father, while the Lord resigned it all and gaveit to the popes; yet that he is still to be worshiped, becauseotherwise the pope is not worshiped with sanctity. But because thispope even after death claimed the Divine for himself, after a fewdays he was cast into hell.115. The Lord said to the angel of this church, “I am the firstand the last, who was dead and is alive,” because those within thechurch that are in the spiritual affection of truth are here treated of.These are such as search out truths from the Word, and when theyfind them they rejoice in heart, solely because they are truths.Those also are here treated of who are in a merely natural affectionof truth. These are such as do not search for truths, nor rejoice inthem because they are truths, but they simply acquiesce in thedoctrinals of their church, not caring whether they are true or false;these they learn with the memory only, confirming them also by