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light, and who was commissioned by the rest to enter into discourse with us, said, You have proposed to us to open our minds and explain to you, how we understand the first words in the Lord's Prayer. I must therefore inform you, that, according to our interpretation, they signify, that we should pray to God the Father; and since Christ is our Saviour, and through his merit we are saved, that, therefore, we should pray to God the Father by faith in his merit.' Upon which we said to them, We belong to a society in heaven which is called Michael, and we are sent to see and ascertain, whether you, who are assembled in this place, have any religion or not, and this we cannot know in any other way than by putting a question to you concerning God; for the idea of God enters into every thing of religion, and by it conjunction is effected, and by conjunction salvation. We in heaven repeat that prayer every day, as men do upon earth, and then we do not think of God the Father, because he is invisible, but we think of him in his Divine Humanity, because in this he is visible; and he in this humanity is called by you Christ, but by us Lord, and thus the Lord is our Father in heaven. The Lord also taught, that he and the Father are one; that the Father is in him and he in the Father; and that he who sees him, sees the Father; also that no one comes to the Father but by him; and likewise that it is the will of the Father, that they should believe in the Son, and that he who believes not in the Son, shall not see life, nay! that the wrath of God abides on him; from which considerations it is plain, that the Father is approached through him and in him; and as this is the case, he also taught, that to him all power was given in heaven and on earth. In that prayer, it is said, ' Hallowed be thy name, and thy kingdom come,' and we have proved from the Word, that his Divine Humanity is the name of the Father, and that the kingdom of the Father then comes when the Lord is immediately approached, and not at all when God the Father is approached immediately; therefore also the Lord commanded his disciples to preach the kingdom of God, and this is the kingdom of God. We moreover instructed them from the

Word, that the Lord came into the world to glorify his humanity, to the end that the angels of heaven and men of the church might be united to God the Father through him and in him, for he taught that they who believe in him, are in him, and he in them, which is like what the church teaches, that they are in the body of Christ. Finally we informed them, that at this day a new church is establishing by the Lord, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, in which the Lord alone is worshiped, as he is in heaven; and that thus all will be accomplished that is contained in the Lord's Prayer from beginning to end. We proved all that has been advanced above out of the Word of the evangelists, and out of the Word of the prophets, so copiously, that they were wearied at the mention of them.

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"I. We proved, that 'Our Father in heaven,' is the Lord Jesus Christ, from the following passages: For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,' Isaiah ix. 5. Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting,' Isaiah lxiii. 16. Jesus said, He that seeth me, seeth him that sent me,' John xii. 45. 'If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him,' John xiv. 7. Philip saith, Lord, show us the Father: Jesus saith unto him, He that seeth me, seeth the Father, how sayest thou then, show us the Father?' John xiv. 8, 9. 'Jesus said, I and the Father are one,' John x. 30. All things that the Father hath are mine,' John xvi. 15, xvii. 10. The Father is in me, and I in the Father,' John x. 38, xiv. 10, 11, 20. 'That no one hath seen the Father, but only the Son who is in the bosom of the Father, John i. 18, v. 37, vi. 46. Wherefore he also says, 'That no one cometh to the Father but through him,' John xiv. 6; and that all access to the Father is through him, from him, and in him, John vi. 57, xiv. 20, xv. 4, 5, 6, xvii. 19, 23.

"But concerning the unity of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, more may be seen in the Memorable Relation, n. 962.

" II. That 'Hallowed be thy name' means to approach the Lord, and worship him, we proved by these passages: "Who shall not glorify thy name, for thou only art holy,' Apoc. xv. 4, speaking of the Lord. Jesus said, 'Father, glorify thy name; then came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again,' John xii. 28. The name of the Father which was glorified was the Divine Humanity. Jesus said, 'I am come in the name of my Father,' John v. 43. Jesus said, He who shall receive this child in my name, receiveth me, and he who receiveth me receiveth him that sent me,' Luke ix. 48. But these are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in his name, John xx. 31. But as many

as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,' John i. 12. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son,' John xiv. 13, 14. He who does not believe, is now judged, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, John iii. 15, 16, 18. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,' Matt. xviii. 19, 20. Jesus commanded his disciples to preach in his name, Luke xxiv. 47; not to mention other passages where the name of the Lord occurs, whereby is meant himself as to his humanity, as in Matt. vii. 22, x. 22, xviii. 5, xix. 29, xxiv. 9, 10, Mark xi. 10, xiii. 13, xvi. 17, Luke x. 17, xix. 38, xxi. 12, 17, John ii. 23; from which it is evident that the Father is hallowed in the Son, and by angels and men through the Son, and that this is the meaning of hallowed be thy name, as further appears in John xvii. 19, 21, 22, 23, 26. "III. That Thy kingdom come,' means, that the Lord should reign, we proved by these passages: "The law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God is preached, Luke xvi. 16. John preaching the good tidings of the kingdom, said, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,' Mark i. 14, 15, Matt. iii. 2. Jesus himself preached the good tidings of the kingdom, and that the kingdom of

my

God was at hand, Matt. iv. 17, 23, ix. 35. Jesus commanded his disciples to preach and declare the good tidings of the kingdom of God, Mark xvi. 15, Luke viii. 1, ix. 60; and in like manner the seventy whom he sent forth, Luke x. 9, 11; besides other places, as in Matt. xi. 5, xvi. 27, 28, Mark viii. 35, ix. 1, 27, x. 29, 30, xi. 10, Luke i. 19, ii. 10, 11, iv. 43, vii. 22, xvii. 20, 21, xxi. 30, 31, xxii. 18. The kingdom of God, or the good tidings announced, was the Lord's kingdom, and thus the kingdom of the Father: that this is the case is evident from the following passages: The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son,' John iii. 35. The Father hath given the Son power over all flesh,' John xvii. 2. All things are delivered unto me of Father,' Matt. xi. 27. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,' Matt. xxviii. 19. Also from these: 'Jehovah of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called,' Isaiah liv. 5. 'I saw, and behold, one like the Son of Man: And there was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom, and all people and nations should serve him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is that which shall not be destroyed,' Dan. xiii. 13, 14. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever,' Apoc. xi. 15, xii. 10; which kingdom of the Lord the Apocalypse treats of from beginning to end, into which all are to come who may belong to the Lord's New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

"IV. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,' we proved by these passages: Jesus said, 'This is the will of the Father, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life,' John vi. 40. For God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' John iii. 15, 16. 'He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life; and he

that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,' John iii. 36; not to mention other places. To believe in him, is to approach. him, and to have confidence that he will save, because he is the Saviour of the world. Besides it is a known thing in the church, that the Lord Jesus Christ reigns in heaven; he also said that his kingdom is there, therefore, when the Lord reigns in like manner in the church, then the Father's will is done in earth as it is in heaven.

"Finally, we added: It is affirmed throughout the whole christian world, that they who are of the church, constitute Christ's body, and are in his body; how then can a member of the church approach God the Father, otherwise than through him in whose body he is? else he must go out of the body to approach.

"Having heard these and many other passages out of the Word, the Armageddons were anxious every now and then to interrupt us, and to adduce such as the Lord said to the Father in his state of exinanition, but then their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths, because they were not permitted to contradict the Word. At length, however, they broke out and exclaimed, You have spoken against the doctrine of our church, which maintains that God the Father should be approached immediately, and that he should be believed in, thus you are guilty of offering violence to our faith, wherefore leave this place at once, or else you shall be turned out;' and their minds being violently inflamed, they were about to proceed from threats to compulsion; but at that instant, by virtue of a power given us, we struck them with blindness, in consequence of which, not seeing us, they rushed forth into the plain, which was a wilderness; and such of them, as appeared to the children who had been looking from the window, like graven images and idols, before whom the rest were kneeling, are the same as appeared to you like apes and horses."