Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 441charity is and what the neighbor is, in the Doctrine of the NewJerusalem, n. 84–107; in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 13–19,528–535; and above, in the Explanation, n. 182, 198, 213.)228. These things saith the Amen, the faithful and the Witness,signifies from whom is every truth and everything of faith. This isevident from the signification of “amen,” as being verity or truth(of which presently); also from the signification of “the faithful andtrue Witness,” as being, in reference to the Lord, everything of faithfrom Him; “for witness,” in reference to the Lord signifies Divinetruth which is from Him, and therefore everything of faith, forfaith is of truth and truth is of faith. Divine truth proceeding fromthe Lord is called “a witness,” because it is His Divine in heavenand in the church in which He is, and which is Himself there; forthis proceeds from His Divine Human and fills the whole heavenand forms and makes it; and from this it is that heaven in the wholecomplex resembles one man. Because Divine truth is from thatsource and is such, it is called “a witness;” for it bears witnessrespecting the Lord’s Divine Human, and makes it clear with allwho receive the Divine truth from Him. From this it is that theangels of the higher heavens do not and cannot perceive any otherDivine than the Lord’s Divine Human, and this from the influx ofthe whole heaven into their minds. From this it can be seen why, inreference to the Lord, “witness” signifies the Lord in respect toDivine truth in heaven and in the church; and why “to bearwitness,” in reference to those who receive Divine truth from theLord,signifies to acknowledge in heart the Lord’s Divine in HisHuman (see above, n. 27. That heaven as a whole and in every partresembles one man, and that this is from the Lord’s DivineHuman, see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 59–86, seq., 101;and that the Divine that proceeds from the Lord, which formsheaven, and forms angels into the image of heaven, is Divine truth,n. 13, 133, 138–140).[2] This Divine truth is called by the Lord “the Comforter, theSpirit of truth,” about which it is said that it should “bear Witnessof Him,” and that it is “from Him;” that it bears witness of Him,in John: