Jehovah the Lord, by the assumption of the Human, did also put on the Divine Rational. Before the assumption of the Human, he had a Divine Rational; but it then existed by influx into the angelic heaven; and when he manifested himself in the world, he had it by an angel whom he filled with his Divine; for the Essence purely Divine,-which, as just stated, was the purely Divine Celestial and Divine Spiritual Essence,-transcends both the angelic and the human rational. But the nature of the Divine Rational which existed by influx may be concluded from the answer to the 6th question beneath. Luther and Melancthon teach, that in Christ Man is God and God is Man; which is also agreeable to the Sacred Scripture:* but Calvin denied this, and merely affirmed that Christ is God and Man.

Question III. Was there not always a Trinity in the Divine Nature, to be understood in this manner, viz. Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, and the Quickening Spirit, or Holy Proceeding?

Answer. The Divine Trinity in one Person is to be understood as soul, body, and proceeding operation, which together constitute one essence, for the one is from the other, consequently the one belongs to the other. There is a similar trinity in every individual man, which together constitutes one person, namely, the soul, body, and proceeding operation. But in man this trinity is finite, for man is only an organ of life; whereas in the Lord the Trinity is Infinite, and thus Divine, for the Lord is life itself even with respect to his Human; as he himself teaches in John (chap. v. 26; xiv. 6; and elsewhere).

Question IV. Does not the Son, by whom Jehovah is said to have created the worlds (Heb. i. 2), signify the same thing as the Divine Wisdom in Jerem. x. 12; li. 15; so that the essential Wisdom, or Logos of God, in first principles, is now become the Truth, or Logos of God, in ultimates?"

Answer. That the Lord, that is, the Word or Divine Truth, by which all things were made that were made, and by which the world was created (John i. 3, 10), was the Divine Wisdom, which with the Divine Love constitutes the Divine Essence, and thus one and the same God, is a natural consequence; for Divine Wisdom is also Divine Truth, since all things appertaining to wisdom are truths, and wisdom produces nothing but truths, it containing in itself all truths, according to Jeremiah x. 12, and li. 15. The same is also understood by that passage in David, Psalm xxxiii. 6. The spirit or breath of the Lord's mouth also is wisdom, and the word there mentioned is

* See the True Christian Religion, n. 137.

the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom together; for it is said, "And the Word was God." (John i. 1).

Question V. Is not the Holy Spirit in the New Testament the same as the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, with this only difference, that before the Lord's incarnation it proceeded from the Divine Esse or Jehovah immediately, or mediately by angels; and after the incarnation, through the Son or the Divine Human?

Is not the Holy Spirit the same as the sphere of God?

Answer. The Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit are two distinct things. The Spirit of God neither did nor could operate on man, otherwise than imperceptibly; whereas the Holy Spirit, which proceeds solely from the Lord, operates on man perceptibly, and enables him to comprehend spiritual truths after a natural manner: for to the Divine Celestial and the Divine Spiritual Principles the Lord hath united the Divine Natural also, by which he operates from them. Besides, the term "Holy,' in the Word, is solely predicated of the Divine Truth, consequently of the Lord, who is the Divine Truth, not only in the celestial and spiritual sense, but also in the natural sense: wherefore it is said in the Apocalypse, that the Lord alone is holy (xv. 3, 4).* It is also said in John: "The Holy Spirit was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (vii. 39).

The Holy Spirit is the same as the Divine Sphere, if by this be meant the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, which two proceed from Jehovah the Lord out of the sun of the angelic heaven, like heat and light from the sun of the natural world, and compose its sphere: for the heat proceeding out of the sun of the angelic heaven is in its essence love, and the light thence is in its essence wisdom; to which two the heat and light proceeding out of the sun of the natural world correspond.

Question VI. Was the Divine Human of Jehovah, before the incarnation, a person subsisting by itself, as the existere, form, or body of God; or was it an angelic form, occasionally assumed for the purpose of manifestation?

Does it not follow, that the Divine Human before the incarnation was different from the Divine Human which now is since the incarnation, seeing the Divine Trinity is in the person of the Lord?

Answer. Before the incarnation there was not any Divine Human, except a representative one by means of some angel, whom Jehovah the Lord filled with his spirit, as has been said above; and as that was a representative one, so all things of the church at that time were representatives, and like shadows;

* See moreover the Apocalypse Revealed, n. 137.

but after the incarnation representatives ceased, like the shadows of evening or night at the rising of the sun. But the representative human, in which Jehovah was then manifested in the world, before his actual advent, was not of such efficacy as that it could spiritually enlighten men; wherefore illumination was then effected only by types and figures.

Question VII. May not the Trinity be properly said to be one and the same Lord under three characters, distinctions of office, or relations towards man, namely, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,-as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,-as Divine Esse, Divine Human, and Holy Proceeding; not as three Persons, which would of necessity be making three Gods?

Answer. The most Holy Trinity in one Person is to be apprehended as the Divine Esse, the Divine Human, and the Divine Proceeding, and thus as soul, body, and operation thence proceeding, altogether as described in the Memorable Relation inserted in the work, entitled, The True Christian Religion.* As productions from these, follow in their order, creation, redemption, and regeneration; for creation is the attribute of the Divine Esse, redemption is the attribute of the Divine Human from the Divine Esse, and regeneration is the attribute of the Holy Spirit, which is the primary power or operation of the Divine Human from the Divine Esse; agreeably to what is said in The True Christian Religion.†

Question VIII.

It is said in 1 Cor. xv. 45, "The first man Adam was made a living soul;" and in the genealogy in Luke iii., he is placed first after God, thus, "Who was the son of God." Does not the regarding Adam as a church contradict this?

Answer. In the genealogy in Luke, it is said, that Adam was "of God" that is, created by God, and not the son of God.

Question IX. If there was no individual man called Noah, how comes it to be said in Ezek. xiv. 14, "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job," &c.?

[I lay no great stress upon these two questions, (says Mr. Hartley,) but I had a mind to propose them.]

Answer. The reason why Noah is mentioned in Ezek. xiv. is, because he was mentioned in Genesis, and hence the same is signified in the prophet as in Moses; namely, that the man with his three sons were significative of the succeeding church; on which subject see what is said in the Arcana Cœlestia.