December
18

New Birth

And it came to pass, that while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should bring forth; and she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes, and laid Him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7)

The Lord Himself came into the world and became Man that He might be in ultimates [or last things] at the same time as in first things, to the end that through ultimates from first things, He might reduce all things to order that had become disordered, namely, all things in the hells and also all things in the heavens. This was the reason for the Lord’s coming, for at the time just before His coming there was no Divine truth in ultimates with men in the world, and none whatever in the church which was then with the Jewish nation, that had not been falsified and perverted, and consequently there was no foundation for the heavens.… But now the Lord, on the earth as in the heavens, is in His fullness, and thus in His omnipotence, because He is in ultimates and in first things. Thus the Lord is able to save all who are in Divine truths from the Word and in a life according to them, for He can be present and dwell with such [people] in ultimate truths from the Word, because ultimate truths are also His, and are Himself, because they are from Him. (Apocalypse Explained 726:7)

In part the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are not naked truths, but are appearances of truth, and are like similitudes and comparisons which are taken from such things as exist in nature, and are therefore accommodated and adapted to the capacity of the simple and also of children. But as these are at the same time correspondences, they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth, and are vessels containing it, as a crystal cup contains noble wine, or a silver dish good food. They are also like garments for clothing the body, as swaddling clothes for an infant, or becoming garments for a maiden. They are also like the knowledges of the natural man, which comprise within them the perceptions and affections of spiritual truth. (True Christian Religion 215)

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