Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 4073[3] Because such is the nature of peace, namely, the inmost of allhappinesses and blessednesses, and hence the universal that reignsin them all, therefore the ancients used as a common form ofspeech the words, “Peace be unto you” when they meant that it bewell; and asked whether people “had peace” when they meant “Is itwell?” See what has been said and shown above in regard to peace,namely; that peace in heaven is like spring and the dawn on earth(n. 1726, 2780); that peace in the supreme sense is the Lord, in therepresentative sense his kingdom, and that it is the Lord’s Divineaffecting with good from the inmost (n. 3780, 4681); that allunrest is from evil and falsity, but peace from good and truth (n.3170).5663. Your God, and the God of your father. That this signifies theLord’s Divine human may be seen from the fact that where “God”or “Jehovah” is mentioned in the Word, the Lord and no one else ismeant (see n. 1343, 1736, 2921, 3035); and when it is said “yourGod and the God of your father” that is, the God of Israel and ofJacob and his sons, it means the Lord’s Divine human, and indeedas to the Divine natural (n. 3305, 4286, 4570); for Israelrepresented the Lord as to the interior natural, Jacob as to theexterior, and his sons as to the truths in this natural.[2] That the Lord was meant in the Word by “God” and“Jehovah” the Jewish church did not know, nor does the Christianchurch know it at this day. That the Christian church has notknown it is because it has distinguished the divinity into threepersons. But the ancient church which was after the flood, andabove all the most ancient church which was before the flood,understood by “Jehovah” and “God” no other than the Lord, andhim indeed as to his Divine human. They also knew about theDivine itself which is in the Lord, and which he calls his “father”yet they were not able to think about that Divine itself which is inthe Lord, but about the Divine human, and consequently couldnot be conjoined with any other Divine; for conjunction is effectedthrough thought which is of the understanding and affection whichis of the will, thus through faith and through love. For if we thinkof the Divine itself, the thought falls as it were into a boundless