True Christian Religion (Ager) n. 648

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648. From this brief review of the points of discordance or disagreement between them, it is clear that the faith and imputation of the New Church can by no means exist together with the faith and imputation of the former or still existing church; and with such a discord and disagreement between the faith and imputation of the two churches, they are totally heterogeneous; and consequently if they were to exist together in man's mind, such a collision and conflict would result that everything pertaining to the church would perish, and in spiritual things man would fall into a delirium or into a swoon, so that he would not know what the church is, or whether there is a church; neither would he know anything about God, faith, or charity. [2] Because the faith of the former church excludes all light derived from reason, it may be likened to an owl, while the faith of the New Church may be likened to a dove, which flies by day and sees by the light of heaven; and their coming together in one mind would be like the meeting of an owl and dove in one nest, where the owl would lay her eggs and the dove hers, and after incubation the young birds would be hatched, and the owl would then tear the young of the dove to pieces and give them for food to her own young, being a voracious bird. [3] As the faith of the former church is described in the Apocalypse (chap. 12) by a dragon, and that of the New Church by a woman encompassed by the sun, upon whose head was a crown of twelve stars, it may be inferred from the comparison what the state of a man's mind would be if the two were to be together in the same abode; namely, the dragon would stand near to the woman when she was about to bring forth, with the intention of devouring her offspring, and when she had fled in to the desert would follow her, and cast out water like a flu after her, that she might be swallowed up.


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