74.关于教会今后的状态，我与天使们有过各种交谈。天使说，他们不知道未来会发生什么，因为唯独主知道未来。他们所知道的是，到目前为止，人们在教会所受的奴役和禁锢已经被废去；现在出于已恢复的自由，他们若愿意，就能更好地感知内在真理，因而若愿意，就会变得更内在。不过，他们说，他们对基督教会的人只抱有一点点希望，但对某个远离基督教界，避开它的攻击和侵扰的民族抱有很大希望，因为这个民族具有这种性质：它能接受属灵之光，变成属天-属灵的人。他们说，如今内在神性真理正在这个民族当中被揭示出来，他们也正以属灵之信，也就是在生活和内心中接受这些真理；并且他们敬拜主。（全书完）
74. I have had various conversations with angels about the future state of the church. They said that they do not know what is to come, because knowing the future belongs to the Lord alone. They do know, though, that the inner slavery and captivity that the people in the church have suffered until now has been taken away; and that now, because freedom has been restored, people can have a better perception of inner truths if they choose to and in this way can become people of greater depth if they wish. However, the angels said they have only slight hope for people of the Christian church along these lines, but more hope for a particular group of people distant from the Christian world and beyond the reach of its proselytizers. The nature of these people is that they are capable of receiving spiritual light and becoming heavenly, spiritual individuals. The angels added that inner divine truths are being revealed to these people at the present day and are being accepted with a spiritual faith-that is, in their lives and in their hearts-and that these people lovingly worship the Lord. 1
THE END
Footnotes:
1. Though the people Swedenborg describes here cannot be positively identified, elsewhere Swedenborg indicates that they live in central parts of Africa. See Supplements 75; Draft of “Supplements” 115-118, 124 [Rogers's numbering] = 116-119, 124 [Potts's numbering] (= Swedenborg 1997a, 101-103); Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) 4774:2, 4777, 5946. [LSW]
74. I had various talks with angels about the future state of the church. They said that they did not know what would happen, because the Lord alone knows the future. What they did know was that the servitude and captivity, in which people in the church have up to now been held, had been taken away, so that now through the restoration of freedom they could better perceive interior truths, if they wished to do so, and thus, if they wished, become interior people. But they said that they still had only faint hopes of the people in the Christian church, though much better hopes of a people far removed from the Christian world and sheltered from its attackers, since it was of a nature able to receive spiritual light and become celestial-spiritual people. They said that at the present time interior truths are being revealed among that people, and they are being received with spiritual faith, that is, in the way they live and in their hearts; and they worship the Lord.
74. I have had various conversations with angels, concerning the state of the church hereafter. They said that they know not things to come, for the knowledge of things to come belongs to the Lord alone; but they know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of the church was formerly, has been taken away, and that now, from restored freedom, he can better perceive interior truths, if he wills to perceive them; and thus be made more internal, if he wills to become so; but that still they have slender hope of the men of the Christian church, but much of some nation far distant from the Christian world, and therefore removed from infesters, which nation is such that it is capable of receiving spiritual light, and of being made a celestial-spiritual man, and they said, that at this day interior Divine truths are revealed in that nation, and are also received in spiritual faith, that is, in life and heart, and that they adore the Lord.
74. Locutus sum cum angelis varia de statu ecclesiae posthac; qui dixerunt quod ventura non sciant, quia ventura scire est solius Domini; sed quod sciant, quod id servum et captivum, in quo fuit homo ecclesiae antehac, sublatum sit, et quod nunc ex libero restituto melius percipere possit vera interiora, si vult percipere, et sic interior fieri, si vult fieri; sed quod usque exilem spem habeant de hominibus Ecclesiae Christianae, ast multam de aliqua Gente ab orbe Christiano dissita et ab infestatoribus inde remota, quae talis est ut lucem spiritualem possit recipere, ac caelestis spiritualis homo fieri; et dixerunt, quod hodie revelentur apud illam Gentem Divina vera interiora, et quoque recipiantur spirituali fide, hoc est, vita et corde, et quod Dominum adorent.