Apocalypse Revealed (Whitehead) n. 76

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76. Verse 2. I know thy works, signifies that He sees all the interiors and exteriors of man at once. "Works" are often mentioned in Revelation, but few know what is meant by works. This is known, that ten men can do works which externally appear alike, but which yet are dissimilar with them all; and this because they proceed from different ends and different causes, the end and the cause rendering the works either good or evil; for every work is a work of the mind, therefore, such as is the quality of the mind, such is the work. If the mind is charity, the work becomes charity; but if the mind is not charity, the work does not become charity; still, however, they may both appear alike in externals. Works appear to men in external form, but to angels in internal form; and to the Lord their quality is apparent from inmost to outmosts. Works in their external form appear like the outside of fruits, but works in their internal form appear like the inside of fruits, where there are innumerable edible parts, and in the midst seeds, in which there are also things innumerable, which are too minute for the keenest eye to discern, yea, which are above the intellectual sphere of man. Such are all works, the internal quality of which the Lord alone sees, and which the angels also perceive from the Lord, when man is doing them. But on this subject more may be seen in The Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 209-220, and n. 277-281; and also below, n. 141, 641, 688). From these things it may appear, that by "I know thy works," is signified that the Lord sees all the interiors and exteriors of man at once.


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