Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/219

MEANING AND USE OF THE SACRAMENT.

Such ideas respecting this most holy sacrament are at this day cherished throughout all Christendom, solely because they accord with the literal sense of the Word, the spiritual sense having been hitherto hidden, and not disclosed until now, in which sense alone the use of the Holy Supper is clearly unfolded.

This sense is now first disclosed, because hitherto Christianity has existed only in name, excepting some shadow of it in a few individuals; for men have not heretofore immediately approached and worshipped the Saviour himself as the only God in whom is the Divine Trinity, but only mediately; and this is not to approach and worship, but merely to venerate Him as the cause of man's salvation, not regarding Him, however, as the essential but as the mediate cause which is beneath and exterior to the former.

But now, because real Christianity is beginning to dawn, a New Church meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation, is now being established by the Lord, wherein the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are acknowledged as one because in one Person, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word in order that this church may enter into the real use of the sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper; and this is done when men see with their spiritual eyes, that is, with the understanding, the holiness concealed therein, and apply it to themselves by the means which the Lord has taught in his Word.