Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 426

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426. [verse 4] 'And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the land, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only those men who did not have the seal of God upon their foreheads' signifies the Lord's Divine Providence that they are not able to take away any truth and good of faith, nor the affection and perception thereof, from any others than those who are not in charity and consequently not in faith. By 'it was said to them' is signified the Lord's Divine Providence, because it was said out of heaven. By 'not hurt the grass of the land, nor any green thing' is signified not to be able to take away anything true and good of faith, for by 'grass' is signified the truth of faith that is born first with a man (n. 401), and by 'green thing' is signified what is living of the faith that is derived from good (n. 401). By not hurting 'any tree' is signified not to be able to take away the affection and perception of truth and good, for by 'tree' is signified a man as to these (n. 400). By 'those who did not have the seal of God upon their foreheads' are signified those who are not in charity and consequently not in faith, for 'forehead' signifies love and charity (n. 347), and 'to have the seal' signifies to have a knowledge of those and distinguish them from others (n. 345). [2] The reason why those who have confirmed faith alone even as far as to the mysteries of justification and salvation thereby cannot take away any truth and good of faith, nor the affection and perception [of them], from any others than those who are not in the faith of charity, is because scarcely anyone comprehends those mysteries except the church dignitary who teaches and preaches them. The layman hears them, but they go in at one ear and out at the other, which the mystery-loving priest himself can know for sure by reason of the fact that he himself has spent all the force of his genius in absorbing them in his early manhood, and afterwards in retaining them in the period following, also the fact that on their account he appraises himself as supremely learned. What then [must it be in the case of] the layman who thinks in a simple manner of a faith derived from charity, when he is hearing of these mystical matters? In consequence of these considerations it can be seen that faith alone justifying is a faith of the clergy and not of the laity, except of those who live unconcernedly. The latter derive out of the mysteries of the former only these things: that faith alone saves, that they cannot do good from themselves, that neither can they fulfil the law, and that Christ suffered on their behalf besides a few universals similar to these.


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