41.只要仍活在世上，任何人都无法看出主在地上的教会是何性质，更看不出随着时间推移，教会如何从良善转向邪恶。原因在于，人活在世上时处于外在，只看见那些出现在他的属世人面前的事物；但教会在属灵事物，也就是它的内在方面的性质并未在世上显现。然而，它的确在天上显现，如在白昼之下那样清晰，因为天使都享有属灵的思维和属灵的视觉，因此只看见属灵事物。再者，自创世之初以来，所有生在这个世界上的人都聚集在灵界，如前所示（23-27节），在那里都照着爱与信的良善而分为各个社群（参看《天堂与地狱》一书，41-50节）。这就是为何天上的天使能看见教会的状态和发展历程。
由于启示录的灵义描述的是教会在爱与信上的状态，所以没有人知道这一切事物依次包含什么，除非这信息从天上被揭示出来，同时圣言的内义或灵义被获准得知。我可以着重发誓，启示录中的细节，直至每个字，都包含一个灵义在里面；就灵义而言，关于教会属灵状态自始至终的一切，都得到了充分描述。此外，由于那里的每个字都表示某种属灵事物，所以哪怕漏掉一个字，内义上的主题顺序都会改变。这就是为何在启示录的末尾，经上说：
这书上预言的话，若有人删去什么，神必从生命册，从圣城和这书上所写的事删去他的分。（启示录22:19）
圣言的旧约也一样。它们里面的每个事物，每个字都包含一个内义或灵义，所以一个字也不能从它们当中删去。这就是为何按照主的圣治，这些书自完成以来，直至最小的字母都被完整保存，许多人甚至小心计算了每个细节。主预见或提供这一切是由于在一点一划，每个字、词，以及这些书所包含的事物里面的神圣。
41. The nature of the Lord's church on earth cannot be seen by any of us as long as we are still living in this world, let alone how it has declined from being good to being evil with the passage of time. This is because as long as we are living in this world we are preoccupied with external matters and see only what is visible to our earthly self. What the church is like spiritually or inwardly is not apparent in this world; but it is clear as day in heaven, because angels enjoy both spiritual thought and spiritual sight. 1This means that they see only what is spiritual. Not only that, all humans who have been born since the beginning of creation are together in that world, as already explained [23-27]. Further, all who are there are arranged in communities depending on what kind of good they do out of love and faith (see Heaven and Hell 41-50). This is why angels in heaven can see both the states of the church and how they change over time.
[2] Now, since the state of the church's love and faith is described in the spiritual meaning of the Book of Revelation, no one can know what is implicit in all these things in sequence unless that information is revealed from heaven and unless knowledge has also been granted of the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word.
This I can solemnly swear, that the details in the Book of Revelation, right down to each word, have a spiritual meaning within them, and that in that meaning everything about the spiritual state of the church from its beginning to its end is fully described. Further, since every word there has a spiritual meaning, not a word can be left out without altering the sequence of subjects in the inner meaning. This is why it says at the end of the book,
If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person's part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book. (Revelation 22:19)
[3] It is the same with the books of the Word's Old Testament. Everything in them, every word, contains inner or spiritual meaning, so not a single word in them can be taken away. This is why under the Lord's divine providence these books have been kept intact right down to the smallest letter 2from the time of their composition, owing to the devotion of the many individuals who counted every detail. 3This was seen to by the Lord because of the holiness inherent in every subject, word, and letter, even to the smallest, in those books.
Footnotes:
1. “Spiritual thought” is the type of thinking in which humans engage after death (see Last Judgment 18; Heaven and Hell 450; Draft of “Supplements” 288 [Rogers's numbering] = 264 [Potts's numbering] [= Swedenborg 1997a, 161]). There can also be spiritual thought within the thinking of people on this earth. In that case it means “to think about actual things as they really are, seeing truths in the light of truth and perceiving what is good because we love it” (New Jerusalem 39). Spiritual thought is also nonspatial and nontemporal (Heaven and Hell 165; Divine Love and Wisdom 7, 70; True Christianity 30). Similarly, “spiritual sight” is the sight that humans enjoy after death. This also has its analog for people on earth: it is “the sight of the intellect and therefore [of] the mind,” in contrast to “physical sight,” which is “the sight of the eye and therefore [of] the body” (True Christianity 346). In particular, spiritual sight is “simply perception of truth. In other words, it is perception of the ideas that make up faith” (Secrets of Heaven 5400). See also Revelation Unveiled 7, 260, 920. [LSW]
2. On the Latin term jota, also spelled jotha, “jot,” here translated “the smallest letter,” see note 2 in New Jerusalem 255. [Editors]
3. In the eighteenth century there was no knowledge of the history of the text of the Old Testament before its standardization during the Jewish Diaspora. However, it was known that the Masoretes-Jewish scholars of the Bible who were active between about the sixth and tenth centuries C.E.-kept accurate count of the number of verses, words, and letters in each book. A colophon at the close of the Book of Deuteronomy in the Torah, for example, lists the number of verses in Deuteronomy, as well as the number of verses, words, and letters in the Torah as a whole. (For a version of this colophon in a modern edition, see Kittel 1950, 320.) Swedenborg makes specific mention of the Masoretes in Sacred Scripture 13:4 and Draft of “Sacred Scripture” 4:2 [Rogers's numbering] = 14 [Whitehead's numbering] (= Swedenborg 1997b, 13). For historical discussion of the Hebrew Bible, see Hayes 2012, Sheehan 2007, and Schniedewind 2004. [GFD, DNG]
41. So long as a person lives in the world, he cannot see what the Lord's church on earth is like, much less how it turned from good to evil in the course of time. This is because a person takes an external view while he lives in the world, and can only see what is plain to his natural man. What a church is like from a spiritual point of view, that is, from the point of view of its internals, cannot be seen on earth. But in heaven it can be seen as in bright daylight, since the angels think spiritually and also see spiritually, so that they see only what is spiritual. Moreover, all the people are gathered there who have been born in the world from the beginning of creation, as was shown above, and all are there divided into communities differing in the kinds of good of love and faith they have (see HEAVEN AND HELL 41-50). So it is that the states of a church and how it progresses are clearly to be seen by the angels in heaven.
[2] Now because Revelation in its spiritual sense describes the state of the church as regards love and faith, no one can know what lies hidden within its whole narrative, unless it has been revealed to him from heaven, and he has been allowed to know the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. I can declare with assurance that all the details there, down to the individual words, contain a spiritual sense, which provides a full description of everything to do with the church as regards its spiritual state from beginning to end. Since every single word in it has some spiritual meaning, none can be omitted without changing the train of ideas in the internal sense. That is why at the end of Revelation we read:
If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away 1his share in the book of life and in the holy city, and in what is written in that book. Revelation 22:19.
[3] It is much the same with the books of the Old Testament Word. In those each subject and each word contains an internal or spiritual sense; so neither there can any word be taken away. That is why by the Lord's Divine providence those books have been kept intact down to the last jot from the time when they were written by the care taken by many scribes who counted even the smallest details in them. This provision by the Lord was to guard the holiness which each jot, letter and word in them possesses.
Footnotes:
1. [The first edition has 'may God take away', but this is probably a printer's error; the usual form occurs in AR and this agrees with the Greek.]
41. The quality of the Lord's church on earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in the world, still less how the church in process of time has turned aside from good to evil. The reason is, that man whilst he is living in the world, is in externals, and only sees those things which appear before his natural man; but the quality of the church as to spiritual things, which are its internals, does not appear in the world. Yet it does appear in heaven as in clear day, for the angels are in spiritual thought, and also in spiritual sight, and hence see nothing but spiritual things. Furthermore, all the men who have been born in this world from the beginning of creation are together in the spiritual world, as shown above, and are all there distinguished into societies according to the goods of love and faith, as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (41-50); whence it is that the state of the church, and its progressions, are manifest in heaven before the angels. Now since the state of the church as to love and faith is described in the spiritual sense of the Apocalypse, therefore no one can know what all the things in its series involve, but he to whom it has been revealed from heaven, and to whom at the same time it has been granted to know the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. This I can assert, that each thing there, nay, that every word, contains within it a spiritual sense, and all things of the church, as to its spiritual state, from the beginning to the end, are fully described in that sense; and because every word there signifies some spiritual thing, therefore not a word can be wanting without the series of things in the internal sense thereby suffering a change; on which account, at the end of that book, it is said:
If any one shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part out of the book of life, and from that holy city, and from those things which are written in that book (Revelation 22:19).
It is the same with the books of the Old Testament; in them also every thing, and every word, contains an internal or spiritual sense, wherefore not one word can be taken away from them either. Hence it is that, of the Lord's Divine providence, those books have been preserved entire to an iota since the time in which they were written, and by the care of many who have enumerated their minutest particulars; this was provided by the Lord on account of the sanctity which is within each iota, letter, word, and thing they contain.
41. Qualis ecclesia. Domini in terris est, non videri potest ab aliquo homine, quamdiu is in mundo vivit, minus quomodo deflexit a bono ad malum progressu temporis:causa est, quia homo, dum in mundo vivit, in externis est, et non videt nisi quae patent coram naturali ejus homine; qualis autem ecclesia est quoad spiritualia quae sunt ejus interna, non in mundo apparet; verum apparet, in caelo ut in clara die, quoniam angeli in spirituali cogitatione et quoque in spirituali visu sunt, et inde non nisi quam spiritualia vident; et praeterea omnes homines ibi simul sunt qui in mundo nati a principio creationis, ut supra ostensum est, et quoque omnes ibi distincti in societates secundum bona amoris et fidei (videatur in opere De Caelo et Inferno 41-50); inde est, quod status ecclesiae, et quoque progressiones ejus in caelo coram angelis pateant. Nunc quia ecclesiae status quoad amorem et fidem in Apocalypsi in sensu ejus spirituali describitur, ideo non potest aliquis scire quid omnia ibi in serie involvunt, nisi cui revelatum est e caelo, et simul cui datum est scire internum seu spiritualem sensum Verbi. Hoc asseverare possum, quod singula ibi, usque ad unumquamvis vocem, contineant in se sensum spiritualem, et quod in illo sensu omnia ecclesiae quoad spiritualem ejus statum a principio ad finem plene descripta sint: et quia unaquaevis vox ibi spirituale significat, ideo nulla vox potest deesse, quin series rerum in sensu interno inde mutationem patiatur; idcirco in fine illius Libri dicitur,
"Si quis abstulerit ex verbis Libri prophetiae hujus, auferat Deus partem ejus e libro vitae, et ex civitate illa sancta, et ex iis quae scripta sunt in Libro illo" (cap. 22:19).
Simile est cum Libris Verbi Veteris Testamenti. In illis etiam unaquaevis res, et unaquaevis vox, continet sensum internum seu spiritualem; quapropter nec ibi aliqua vox auferri potest. Inde est, quod ex Divina providentia Domini illi Libri integri conservati sint usque ad iotam a tempore quo conscripti, per curam plurium qui singularissima ibi numeraverunt; hoc provisum est a Domino ob sanctitatem, quae cuivis iotae, litterae, voci, et rei ibi inest.