ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL GOVERNMENT (pt. 10)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL GOVERNMENT
(pt. 10)

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Royalty consists in administering according to the laws of the realm and in judging according to them from justice.

The king who regards the laws as above himself is wise, but he who regards himself as above the laws is not wise.

The king who regards the laws as above himself places the royalty in the law, and the law has dominion over him, for he knows that the law is justice, and that all justice which is justice is Divine.

But he who regards himself as above the laws places the royalty in himself, and either believes himself to be the law, or the law, which is justice, to be from himself; hence he arrogates to himself that which is Divine, under which nevertheless he ought to be.

(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 322)