The Divine Trinity (pt 4)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 4)

These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of the one God, and they make one as soul, body, and operation make one in man.

In anyone thing there are both general and particular essentials, and these together make one essence.

The general essentials of the one man are his soul, body, and operation. That these constitute one essence can be seen from this-

that one is from the other and for the sake of the other in an unbroken series

for man gets his beginning from the soul, which is the very essence of the semen; and the soul not only initiates, but also produces in their order all things that pertain to the body, and afterward all things that proceed from the soul and body together, which are called operations.

From this production, therefore, of one from the other, and the consequent ingrafting and conjunction, it can be seen that these three are of one essence, and therefore they are called three essentials.

Everyone acknowledges that these three essentials, namely, soul, body, and operation, both were and are in the Lord God the Savior. That His soul was from Jehovah the Father cannot be denied except by Antichrist;

for in the Word of both Testaments He is called the Son of Jehovah, the Son of the Most High God, the Only-begotten;

consequently the Divine of the Father, like the soul in man, is His first essential.

From this it follows that the Son whom Mary brought forth is the body to that Divine soul; for in the mother's womb nothing is furnished except the body that has been conceived and derived from the soul; this, therefore, is His second essential.

Operations constitute the third essential, since these proceed from soul and body together, and what proceeds is of the same essence as that which produces it.

That the three essentials, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the Lord are one, like soul, body, and operation in man, is clearly evident from the Lord's words, that the Father and He are one; that the Father is in Him and He in the Father; and in like manner He and the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is the Divine that goes forth out of the Lord from the Father, as fully shown above from the Word; therefore to show it again would be superfluous, and like loading a table with food after the appetite has been satisfied.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 166, 167)