[2] 'In a universal idea' is said, because this is what is universal of the faith, and what is universal of the faith is that which will be in all things thereof collectively and separately. It is a universal of the faith that God is One in Person and Essence in Whom is the Trinity, and that the Lord is that God. It is a universal of the faith that no mortal could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal of the faith that He came into the world in order to remove hell from man, and He removed it by means of combats against it and victories over it; in this manner He subjugated it, and brought it back into order, and under His discipline. It is also a universal of the faith that He came into the world in order to glorify the Human that He had assumed in the world, that is, to unite it to the Divine from which it came (Divinum a Quo). In this manner He keeps hell, as subjugated by Himself, in order and under His discipline to eternity. Since each of these two things could only have come to pass by means of temptations even to their utmost limit, and their utmost limit was the passion of the cross, therefore He submitted to that. These are the universals of the faith concerning the Lord.

[3] The universal of the Christian faith on man's part is, that he should believe in the Lord, for by believing in Him there is a conjunction with Him, through which there is salvation. To believe in Him is to have confidence that He will save, and because a man is not able to have confidence unless he lives well, therefore this also is understood by believing in Him.

[4] Concerning these two universals of the Christian faith there has been specific treatment; of the FIRST, regarding the Lord, in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD; and of the SECOND, regarding man, in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING CHARITY, and CONCERNING FAITH, and in THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THAT [NEW JERUSALEM]; also [there is] at present [a treatment] of both in the expositions on the Apocalypse (in Explicationibus super Apocalypsin).