Brief Exposition (Stanley) n. 63

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63. The reason human properties have been ascribed to God is that all spiritual perception and illumination is from the Lord alone. For the Lord is the Word or Divine Truth,

the true Light which lighteth every man. John i 1, 9.

He also says:

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. John xii 46.

This light, with the perception thence derived, flows only into those who acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and approach Him alone; it does not flow into those who entertain an idea of three Gods, as has been the case from the time the Christian Church began to be established. Being merely natural, this idea is receptive of no other light than natural light; it cannot be opened to admit and receive spiritual light. This is the reason men have seen no other properties in God than such as are natural. Moreover, had they seen how incongruous these human properties are with the Divine Essence, and if they had removed them from the article concerning justification, they would then have departed entirely from their religion, which from the beginning was founded on the worship of three Gods, before the time appointed for the New Church, when there would be a fulness and restoration of truth.


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