Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/251

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WHO ARE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM?
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the Word, and have believed in Him. This therefore is what is meant.

That he who does not live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word, is condemned, the Lord teaches in John : "And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not. There is one that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (xii. 47, 48). And that he is condemned who does not believe in the Lord, also in John: "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" (iii. 36;. (A. R. 874.)

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city," signifies that they enjoy eternal felicity who live according to the Lord's commandments, to the end that they may be in the Lord and the Lord in them, and in his New Church by knowledges concerning Him. (A. R. 951.)

"For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie," signifies that no one will be received into the New Jerusalem, who makes no account of the commandments of the decalogue, and does not shun as sins the evils there enumerated, and therefore lives in them. Dogs signify especially those who are in merely corporeal pleasures — persons of gross minds who make no account of the things relating to the church. (A. R. 952.)

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