815.他们的这种状态造成很多影响，其中包括，他们将教会的属灵事物铭刻在记忆中，极少将它们提升到认知的更高层面，而只允许它们到达较低层面，由此推理它们，这种行为完全不同于自由民族。在被称为神学的教会属灵事物方面，自由的民族就象鹰，能飞升任一高度，而不自由的民族则象游在河面的天鹅；自由的民族还象有高角的大鹿，自由奔跑在平原、树林和森林里，而不自由的民族则象养在动物园娱乐君王的小鹿。此外，自由的人民就象被古人称为佩加索斯的飞马，不但飞越大海，还飞越名为帕纳萨斯的群山和它们下面的缪斯神殿。但不自由的人民则象装饰了漂亮马具、养在国王马厩里的良马。他们在神学奥秘上的判断也有类似差异。德国的神职人员尚在学习期间，就记下学院老师所说的名言，他们珍视这些笔记，将其当作学识的权威证明。当他们被委任牧师或学校讲师时，他们会在讲桌或讲坛前说一些套话，主要是引用这些名言。不那么正规的牧师通常会宣讲圣灵及其奇迹，以唤起人们心里的神圣感。但那些根据当今正统教义教导信仰的牧师在天人看来，就象戴了一个橡树叶编织的花环，而那些通过圣言教导仁爱及其善行的牧师在天人看来，则象戴了一个芳香月桂叶编织的花环。德国的福音派在与新教争论真理时，就象在撕裂自己的衣服，因为衣服象征真理。
815. 他们的这种状态造成很多影响, 其中包括, 他们将教会的属灵事物铭刻在记忆中, 极少将它们提升到认知的更高层面, 而只允许它们到达较低层面, 由此推理它们, 这种行为完全不同于自由民族。 在被称为神学的教会属灵事物方面, 自由的民族就象鹰, 能飞升任一高度, 而不自由的民族则象游在河面的天鹅; 自由的民族还象有高角的大鹿, 自由奔跑在平原, 树林和森林里, 而不自由的民族则象养在动物园娱乐君王的小鹿。 此外, 自由的人民就象被古人称为佩加索斯的飞马, 不但飞越大海, 还飞越名为帕纳萨斯的群山和它们下面的缪斯神殿。 但不自由的人民则象装饰了漂亮马具, 养在国王马厩里的良马。 他们在神学奥秘上的判断也有类似差异。 德国的神职人员尚在学习期间, 就记下学院老师所说的名言, 他们珍视这些笔记, 将其当作学识的权威证明。 当他们被委任牧师或学校讲师时, 他们会在讲桌或讲坛前说一些套话, 主要是引用这些名言。 不那么正规的牧师通常会宣讲圣灵及其奇迹, 以唤起人们心里的神圣感。 但那些根据当今正统教义教导信仰的牧师在天人看来, 就象戴了一个橡树叶编织的花环, 而那些通过圣言教导仁爱及其善行的牧师在天人看来, 则象戴了一个芳香月桂叶编织的花环。 德国的福音派在与新教争论真理时, 就象在撕裂自己的衣服, 因为衣服象征真理。
815. This condition of theirs affects them in many different ways. One of them is this: They hold the spiritual teachings of the church in their memory. They seldom lift them up into the higher level of their intellect; they just set them before the lower level of their intellect and reason about them on that level.
This is very different from the way thinking occurs in the nations that have freedom. When it comes to the spiritual or theological teachings of the church, the nations that have freedom are like eagles that can soar aloft to any height; the nations that have no freedom are like swans swimming on the surface of a river. Nations that have freedom are like majestic deer with great racks of antlers, running wherever they wish through fields, woods, and forests; nations that have no freedom are like deer kept in a game preserve for the royal family's amusement. People who have freedom are like the flying horses known to the ancients as Pegasuses, which fly not only over oceans but also over hills that are called Parnassian, and even over the Muses themselves below. People who have not been set free intellectually are like well-bred horses in beautifully studded halters, standing in the royal stables.
[2] These similes represent different degrees of judgment in regard to theological mysteries.
The clergy there, back at the time when they were students, would copy out material dictated by their teachers. They keep their notebooks as evidence of their scholarship. When they are ordained into the priesthood or established as lecturers in the schools, the talks they give from the pulpit or from the lectern are largely based on the quotations they wrote down.
The priests there who are outside the orthodoxy tend to preach about the Holy Spirit, and its miraculous way of working and stirring up holy feelings in our hearts.
German priests who support the modern-day orthodox position on faith appear to the angels as though they are wearing a wreath of horse-chestnut leaves. German priests who teach from the Word about goodwill and its practical application, however, appear to the angels in wreaths of fragrant laurel leaves.
When the Lutherans there are disputing matters of truth with the Calvinists, they look like they are tearing at each other's clothes, because clothes mean truths.
815. This state of theirs has many effects, including the fact that they keep spiritual matters to do with the church engraved upon their memory, rarely raising them to the higher level of the understanding, but only admitting them to the lower level, from which they reason about them. In this they behave quite differently from other free nations. As regards spiritual matters to do with the church, what are called theological matters, free nations are like eagles which soar to any height; but unfree nations are like swans swimming on a river. Free nations are also like the larger deer with tall antlers running in perfect freedom through plains, woods and forests; but unfree nations are like deer kept in zoos for a prince's pleasure. Furthermore, free peoples are like the flying horses the ancients called Pegasuses, flying not only over seas but also over the hills called Parnassian, and over the temples of the Muses lying beneath them. But people not given their freedom are like horses of good stock with beautiful harness accoutrements in kings' stables.
[2] All of these are likenesses of the differing judgments applied to the mysteries of theology.
The clergy there while under training write down what the teachers in their colleges dictate, and treasure these notes as proofs of their learning. When they are ordained into the priesthood or appointed lecturers in schools, they deliver their prescribed talks, one party from their pulpits, the other from their desks, drawing mainly on the dictation mentioned just before. Those of the priests who depart from orthodoxy in their teaching generally preach about the Holy Spirit and the wonders it works, arousing feelings of holiness in people's hearts. Those who follow the current orthodoxy in their teaching about faith appear to the angels to be garlanded with wreaths bound with oak-leaves. But those who draw their teachings about charity and the deeds it inspires from the Word appear to the angels to be crowned with wreaths woven from the fragrant leaves of the laurel. The Evangelicals in Germany in their arguments with those of the Reformed churches about truths seem to be tearing their clothes;' because clothes stand for truths.
815. From this state of theirs many things proceed, and among them this, that they keep the spiritual things of the church inscribed upon the memory, and seldom elevate them into the higher understanding, but admit them only into the lower, from which they reason about them, which is doing wholly differently from free nations. Such nations, as regards the spiritual things of the church called theological, are like eagles which rise to whatever height they please; while nations that are not free are like swans in a river. Again, free nations are like the larger deer with lofty horns, that roam the fields, groves, and forests at perfect liberty; while nations that are not free are like the deer kept in parks to please a prince. And still again, free peoples are like the winged horse which the ancients called Pegasus, that flew not only over the seas, but over the so called Parnassian hills, and also over the hills of the Muses beneath them; while a people not freed are like noble horses handsomely caparisoned in kings' stables. There are like differences in their judgments regarding the mysterious matters of theology. The clergy of the Germans, while they are students, write out from the mouths of their teachers in the colleges certain dicta, and these they guard as the authoritative utterances of erudition; and when they are inaugurated into the priesthood, or made lecturers in the schools, they, for the most part, draw their official utterances in the desk or in the pulpit from those dicta. Such of their priests as do not teach in accordance with orthodoxy usually preach about the Holy Spirit and its wonderful workings and excitations of holiness in men's hearts. But those who teach about faith according to the orthodoxy of the present day, appear to the angels as if decorated with wreaths of oak leaves; while those who teach from the Word about charity and its works appear to the angels to be adorned with wreaths of odoriferous leaves of laurel. Those there who are called Evangelical, in their disputes with the Reformed about truths, appear to be rending their garments, because garments signify truths.
815. One of the many results from this state of mind is, that they keep the spiritual things of the Church inscribed on the memory. They seldom elevate them into the higher understanding, but only admit them into the lower understanding, from which they reason about them; and in this they differ entirely from free nations. In the spiritual matters of the Church, that is, in theological matters, free nations are like eagles, which soar to any height they please; whereas nations that are not free are like swans on a river. Free nations are also like the nobler stags with lofty horns that roam the fields, groves and forests in perfect freedom; whereas nations that are not free are like deer enclosed in parks, and kept for the private benefit of some prince. Again, peoples with their liberty resemble flying horses, like that called Pegasus 1 by the ancients, that fly not only over seas but also over Parnassian heights, and over the seats of the Muses that lie below; whereas peoples who have not been granted their liberty are like high-bred horses, adorned with costly trappings in the stables of kings.
There is the same difference in their opinions concerning the mysteries of theology. The German clergy, while students, write down the teachings dictated by their masters in the high schools, and these they preserve as authoritative tokens of their erudition. When they enter on the priestly office, or are appointed lecturers in the schools, they base for the most part their official discourses, whether speaking from the pulpit or the teacher's chair, on these written notes. Those priests who do not teach the orthodox doctrine, usually preach about the Holy Spirit and its wonderful operations, and the awakening of holiness in the heart; but some do teach the present day orthodox doctrine of faith, and these appear to the angels as if adorned with wreaths of oak leaves; whereas those who teach from the Word concerning charity and good works, appear to the angels as if adorned with wreaths of fragrant laurel leaves. In Germany the Evangelicals, 2 when disputing with the Reformed about truths, appear to the angels to be tearing garments, because garments signify truths.
Footnotes:
1. Pegasus, winged horse of Greek legend.
2. Evangelicals, Low Church Protestants who profess evangelical principles, especially the doctrine that salvation is by faith in the Atonement.
815. Ex hoc illorum statu procedunt plura, et inter illa hoc; quod spiritualia Ecclesiae inscripta memoriae teneant, et raro elevent illa in Intellectum superiorem, sed modo immittant illa in Intellectum inferiorem, e quo de illis ratiocinantur, ita prorsus aliter quam Nationes liberae; hi quoad spiritualia Ecclesiae, quae vocantur Theologica, sunt sicut Aquilae, quae se evehunt in quamvis altitudinem, at Nationes non liberae sunt sicut Olores in fluvio. Et quoque Nationes liberae sunt sicut Cervi grandiores cum altis cornibus, qui percurrunt campos, lucos et sylvas in plena licentia, at Nationes non liberae sunt sicut Cervi in Vivariis detenti ut serviant Principi. Porro Populi libertatis sunt sicut Equi volantes ab Antiquis vocati Pegasi, qui non modo super Maria, sed etiam super Colles qui nuncupantur Parnassii, et quoque super Musaea infra illos, volant; at Populi non manumissi sunt sicut generosi Equi pulchre phalerati in Stabulis Regum.
[2] His similia sunt discrimina judiciorum in rebus mysticis Theologiae; Clerici ibi, dum discipuli sunt, ex ore Didascalorum in Lyceis exscribunt dictamina, et haec custodiunt sicut auctoramenta eruditionis, et cum inaugurati sunt sacerdotio, aut constituti Lectores in Gymnasiis, 1 hi e cathedris, et illi e suggestis, canonicas suas loquelas, ex dictatis, de quibus nunc supra, ut plurimum hauriunt. Sacerdotes illorum, qui non ex orthodoxia docent, communiter Spiritum Sanctum, ac mirabiles ejus operationes et excitationes sanctitatum in cordibus praedicant; at illi, qui ex hodierna Orthodoxia de Fide docent, apparent Angelis sicut laurea ex foliis aesculi ligata insigniti; at illi, qui ex Verbo de Charitate et ejus operibus docent, apparent Angelis sicut laurea ex foliis odoriferis e lauro contexta ornati. Evangelici ibi in contentionibus cum Reformatis de veritatibus apparent sicut lacerent vestes, ex causa quia vestes significant veritates.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: Gymnasiiis.