Coronis, or Appendix,
to True Christian Religion

Emanuel Swedenborg

FOURTH PROPOSITION (54 - 56)

54. (III) That the third state of this church was a decline from true representative into idolatrous worship, and then was its vastation, or evening. Some observations were adduced above respecting the difference between representative worship and idolatrous worship, from which it may be plainly seen that so long as the types, figures, and signs, which were laid hold of by the senses of the body as objects of religion by the men of the Noachian and Israelitish Churches, were not at the same time regarded from a higher of interior idea, nearly approaching to a spiritual one, worship truly representative easily declined with them into idolatry. As for example: If they so thought of the tabernacle, as not to think at the same time of heaven and the church, and of God's dwelling-place in them; of the bread of faces therein, so as not to think at the same time of the heavenly bread for the nourishment of the soul; of the incense and the burning of it upon the golden altar there, in such a way as not to think at the same time about worship from faith and charity, as ascending to Jehovah as a grateful odor; about the lights in the lamps of the golden lampstand, when lighted, in such wise as not to think at the same time of the illumination of the understanding in the objects of their religion; and about the eating of the holy things, so that they did not at the same time think about the appropriation of heavenly foods, and also about the holy refreshment of their spirits by the performance of the sacrifices: and with the other things in like manner. It is hence evident, that, if the man of the representative church did not at the same time look upon the things belonging to that worship with a rational spirit enlightened by heavenly light from the Lord, but only with a rational spirit informed by the natural light (lumen) of the world from self, he could very easily be carried away from genuine representative worship into idolatrous worship, and so be vastated. For vastation is nothing else but a deviation, decline, and falling away from representative worship into idolatrous; which two kinds of worship are alike as to the external face, but not as to the internal face.

[2] On account of this proneness to fall away from one worship which in itself was heavenly, into another which in itself was infernal, the interior things of the church and of religion could not be revealed before the Lord's Coming, and then it was by means of light from Him, namely, concerning heaven and hell, the resurrection, and the life of their spirits after death, and also the immortality of their souls, regeneration, and in brief the interior things respecting faith and charity; inasmuch as they would have looked upon them scarcely otherwise than as anyone looks at birds over the head, or meteors in the air. And moreover they would have involved them so deeply in the mere fallacies of the senses, that still not a single vestige of revealed spiritual things would have been visible, except as much as the tip of the nose in respect to the face, or a finger-nail in respect to the hands. They would also have so deformed them, that in the sight of the angels they would have appeared no otherwise than like a sea-monster clothed in a cloak, having a mitre on the head, and with a face, after being shaved and painted, like that of an ape which has a bald face. And they would also have appeared in the sight of the angels like a sculpture, furnished with movable joints and hollowed out; inside of which some man, a Levite, being admitted, it would walk about, act, and speak, and at length cry out to the superstitious multitude, "Prostrate yourselves; invoke me; behold me, your household tutelar God, to whom belongs holiness and divine power."

[3] Could the ideas of the thought of these concerning the spiritual things of the church be superior to the ideas of thought of Nicodemus, who was a learned man, on regeneration, which was that the whole man would be re-born in the mother's womb; for he said:

How can a man be born anew? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb?

To whom the Lord answered:

Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not this? If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I shall tell you super-celestial things? (John 3:3, 4, 9, 10, 12).

They would have been equally delirious if interior things, which in their essence are spiritual, had been disclosed to them concerning faith and charity, and also the life after death, and respecting the state of heaven and hell. Wherefore, to open the internal sight of their mind or spirit, as to its higher region, which alone heavenly light illuminates, before the coming of the Lord, who came into the world as "the Light," as He Himself says (John 1:1-4; 8:12; 12:35, 36, 46), was as impossible as it is to make a horse fly and turn it into Pegasus, or a stag run in the air, or a calf upon the waters; yea, as it would be to turn an agate into a ruby, or a crystal into a diamond, or to impart a vein of silver to a common stone, or to make a laurel produce grapes, a cedar olives, a poplar and an oak pears and apples; therefore, also, as impossible as to infuse the intelligence of the learned Oedipus into the listening Davus.

55. But what vastation is, and whence it was with the people of the Israelitish Church, may be gathered from the passages in the Prophets where it is mentioned, which shall therefore he adduced in abundance. It must be premised, that, in the following and the subsequent passages from the Word, by "land" is there signified the church, because the land of Canaan is meant, in which the church was; by "Zion," the church as to the Word; by "Jerusalem," the church as to doctrine from the Word; by the "cities" therein, doctrinals; by the "mountains," "hills," "valleys," and "rivers," the formalities of the church; and by the tracts of land there, the general things of the church, and these according to the representation of the tribe by which they were possessed.

56. The passages from the Prophetic Word, treating of the Israelitish Church, "vastation," "desolation," and "breaking up," and in which these and also "desert" are mentioned, are the following:

O inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, what should I do to My vineyard that I had not done? I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. I will make it into a desolation, it shall not be pruned nor hoed, that the briar may come up, and the houses shall be to a devastation; for they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither see the operation of His hands (Isa. 5:3-12).

Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My field, they have reduced the field of My desire to a desert of solitude; he hath made it into a solitude. O desolate, desolate is the whole land, because no one putteth it upon his heart. The wasters came upon all hills in the desert. They have sown wheat, but have reaped thorns (Jer. 12:10-13).

A nation hath come up upon My land, and hath reduced My vine to a waste (Joel 1:6, 7).

The field is devastated, the land mourneth, the corn is devastated; the must is dried up, the oil languisheth (Joel 1:10).

By "vineyard" and "field" in these, as in other passages of the Word, is signified the church.

In all your habitations the cities shall be devastated, and the high places desolated, that your altars may be devastated and desolated, and your idols may cease, and your statues may be cut down, and your works blotted out (Ezek. 6:6; see also 6:14).

My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity; to make the land into a waste (Jer. 18:15, 16).

"Land," here is for the church.

The high places of Isaac shall be vastated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be desolated (Amos 7:9).

Go and tell this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not; make the heart of this people fat, and besmear his eyes. (Isa. 6:9-10)

Then said the prophet:

Lord, how long? and He said, Until the cities be devastated, and the land is reduced to a solitude: Jehovah will multiply deserts in the midst of the land (Isa. 6:11-12).

Behold, Jehovah maketh the land empty, and maketh it void; the land emptying shall be emptied; because they have transgressed the laws, passed by the statute, and made void the covenant of eternity. Therefore in the city there shall be a waste, and the gate shall be crushed even to devastation (Isa. 24:1, 3, 5, 12).

The highways are devastated, the wayfaring man hath ceased, he hath made void the covenant. Conceive ye chaff, bring forth stubble (Isa. 33:8, 11).

I have been silent from eternity, I will desolate and swallow up together. I will lay waste mountains and hills (Isa. 42:14, 15).

Thy destroyers and devastators shall go forth out of thee. For as for thy vastations and desolations, and the land of thy devastation, the devourers shall be far away (Isa. 49:17, 19).

Your iniquities have been dividers between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you. They set an asp's eggs, and wove the spider's webs. Vastation and breaking up are in their paths. We look for light, but behold darkness; we feel the wall like the blind, we stumble at noonday as in the twilight (Isa. 59:2, 5, 7, 9, 10).

The cities of holiness are become a desert, Zion is become a desert, and Jerusalem a waste. Our house of holiness is become a kindling of fire, and all our desirable things are become a waste (Isa. 64:10, 11).

The young lions roar against Israel, they reduce his land to a waste (Jer. 2:15).

Woe unto us, for we are devastated. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness. How long shall thoughts of iniquity tarry in the midst of thee? (Jer. 4:13, 14).

As a fountain causeth her waters to gush forth, so Jerusalem causeth her wickedness to gush forth. Violence and vastation is heard in her. Admit chastisement lest I reduce thee to a waste. O daughter of My people, gird thee with sackcloth, and roll thee in ashes; for the vastator shall suddenly come upon us (Jer. 6:7, 8, 26).

A voice of lamentation is heard in Zion, How are we devastated! Because I have deserted the land (Jer. 9:19).

"Land" is for the church.

My tent is devastated, all its ropes are plucked out; for the pastors have become foolish, and have not inquired of Jehovah (Jer. 10:20, 21).

"Tent" means worship.

The voice roars; behold it cometh, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to reduce the cities of Judah to a waste, a habitation of dragons (Jer. 10:22).

The whole land shall be a desolation, a devastation (Jer. 25:11).

"Land" means the church.

The voice of a cry from Horonaim, devastation and great breaking up; the vastator shall come upon every city (Jer. 48:3, 5, 8, 9, 15, 18).

These things are concerning Moab, by which is meant confidence in his own works and in one's own intelligence (as is manifest from verse 29 of that chapter).

That they may want bread and water, and be desolated, a man and his brother, and pine away for their iniquity (Ezek. 4:17).

"Bread" and "water" mean good and truth.

Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of devastation and desolation (Ezek. 23:33).

Woe unto them! for they have wandered away; devastation be unto them (Hos. 7:13).

The land shall be a desolation, because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings (Micah 7:13).

(Besides many other passages, as Isa. 7:18, 19; 17:4-6, 9-14; 22:4-9; 29:10-12; 51:19; Jer. 19:8; 25:9-11, 18; 44:2, 6, 22; Ezek. 9:1 to end; 12:19, 20; 33:24, 28, 29; Hos. 10:14; 12:2; Joel 2:20; Amos 5:9; Micah 6:13, 16; Hab. 1:3; Hag. 1:4, 9; Zech. 7:14; 11:2-3.) From all these passages it may be seen what "vastation" and "desolation" are; and that it is not a vastation and desolation of the peoples of a land, and of cities, but of the goods and truths of the church, whence there is nothing but evils and falsities.