True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 249

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

249. There is said to be a marriage of the Lord and the church in the details of the Word, and thus a marriage of good and truth, because where there is a marriage of the Lord and the church, there too there is a marriage of good and truth, for the one is the result of the other. So long as a church or its individual members are in possession of truths, the Lord acts upon the truths with good and makes them come alive; or, what is the same thing, so long as a person belonging to the church is able to understand truth, the Lord acts upon his understanding by means of the good of charity and thus pours life into it. Every person has two life-faculties, known as the understanding and the will. The understanding receives truth and hence wisdom; the will receives good and hence charity. These two faculties must act as one for a person to be a true member of the church; and they do so, so long as a person forms his understanding from genuine truths, and this appears to be his own doing, and so long as his will is filled by the good of love, which is the Lord's doing. Hence a person has a life of truth and a life of good, the life of truth in the understanding, the life of good in the will. So long as they are united, they make not two, but one life. This is the marriage of the Lord and the church, or the marriage of good and truth in the case of the individual.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church