501、随着时间推移，教会的交替，正如前面说的，一个从另一个生出，类似于果实或果实里面的种子。它们的中间或至内在部分可以说有果实的果实或种子的种子，后续发展的周边部分依次从至内在部分存活，或说果实或种子的每一层都依次从在它之前的那一层获得生命。因为距离至内在部分越远，越趋向表面或周边，里面的果实或种子的本质就越少，直到最终只有一层皮或覆盖物，果实或种子在那里终结。或就像脑，其至内在部分是被称为皮质的精微组织，这些物质为灵魂的运作提供了一个起点和媒介。从它们那里按次序先出现的是较为精细的覆盖物，然后是密集的覆盖物，再后来是被称为脑膜的普遍覆盖物；这些普遍覆盖物以更普遍的覆盖物为边界，最后终止于最普遍的覆盖物，也就是头骨。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]501. The churches succeeding one another over time, each described as giving birth to the next, operated much as fruits do, or as their seeds do. The fruit within the fruit or seed within the seed, so to speak, is at the center, deep inside, and each layer of fruit or seed receives life from the layer before it in order. The farther out you go toward the surface, the less there is of the fruit's or the seed's essence, until finally there is only a skin or covering where the fruit or seed ends.
The brain follows the same pattern. Inside it is a fine organic network called the cortical substances. These substances provide a starting point and medium for the soul's operations. Following in order from them come fine coverings, then denser ones, and at last the ones that overlie all of the brain, called meninges. These are bounded by even more inclusive layers and in the end by the one that envelops the whole, which is the skull.{*1}
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg has no difficulty here comparing the tissue layers surrounding a seed in a fruiting body with the brain and its meninges. The underlying rationale for this comparison is the contiguum concept appearing early in his scientific period and coming to maturity in his theological works. According to this concept, such layers are derived successively one from another in a causal series, each layer being a little less perfect than the one before. They are related — but not equivalent — structures. This anatomical principle appears in the theological works as the principle of distinct levels (traditionally rendered "discrete degrees"), which is necessary, along with the principle of correspondence, for describing how the divine order devolves from spiritual to physical levels in a step-by-step process. [RPB]
Potts(1905-1910) 501
501. As regards the churches that in course of time succeeded one another, and of which it is said that one was born from another, the case with them was the same as it is with fruits, or with their seeds. In the midst of these, that is, in their inmosts, there are as it were fruits of the fruits, or seeds of the seeds, from which live as it were in regular order the successive parts. For the more remote these are from the inmost toward the circumference, the less of the essence of the fruit or of the seed is there in them, until finally they are but the cuticles or coverings in which the fruits or seeds terminate. Or as in the case of the brain, in the inmost parts of which are subtle organic forms called the cortical substances, from which and by which the operations of the soul proceed; and from which in regular order the purer coverings follow in succession, then the denser ones, and finally the general coverings called meninges, which are terminated in coverings still more general, and at last in the most general of all, which is the skull.
Elliott(1983-1999) 501
501. The succession of Churches in the course of time, and how, as is said, they were born one from another, resembles fruit or the seeds within fruit. in their centre or inmost parts there are, so to speak, the fruit of the fruit, or seeds of the seeds, from which there live so to speak in order the surrounding parts which develop at later stages. For the further those areas are from the middle towards the outermost parts the less are they essentially fruit or seed, until at length the skin or shell is reached where the fruit or seeds terminate. Or as with the brain, in the innermost areas there are delicate parts of its organic structure known as the cortical substances, from which and through which the soul functions. From these cortical substances finer coverings proceed in proper order, then those that are coarser. After that there are general coverings called meninges, and more general ones outside of these until the one on the very outside, which is the skull, is reached.
Latin(1748-1756) 501
501. Ecclesiae temporum tractu sibi succedentes, et quarum una ab altera dicitur nata, se habuerunt sicut se habet cum fructibus aut cum eorum seminibus, quod in medio illorum seu in intimis sint fructuum quasi fructus, seu seminum quasi semina, ex quibus vivunt quasi ordine succedentia; nam quo remotius inde versus peripherias, eo minus essentiae fructus aut seminis, usque tandem ut sint modo cuticulae seu involucra, in quae fructus aut semina desinunt. Aut sicut in cerebro, in cujus intimis sunt subtilia organica, substantiae corticales dicta, ex quibus et per quae animae operationes procedunt; ex quibus ordine succedunt puriora involucra, tum densiora, tandem communia quae vocantur meninges, quae terminantur in adhuc communioribus et tandem in communissimo quod est cranium.