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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
BONDAGE UNDER THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLDA symbol of captivity to desire and sensation Even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world Galatians iv 3 This refers to the infancy of the spiritual egos and the early stages of evolution during which the laws of nature or pressure from without in the organism and its environment alone stimulate the egos into activity When a man becomes regenerate he then first enters upon a state of freedom before he was in a state of bondage It is bondage when lusts and falsities have dominion it is freedom when affections of good and truth hold sway Swedenborg Arc Cel n 892 Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage for when a man is a prey to his emotions he is not his own master but lies at the mercy of fortune so much so that he is often compelled while seeing that which is better for him to follow that which is worse Spinoza Ethics Vol II p 187 And if they shall be in chains and bound with the cords of poverty He will show them their works and their wickednesses because they have been violent Job XXXVI 8 9 The chains of bondage are the very detention of their present pilgrimage Paul had seen that he was bound by these chains when he was saying I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil i 23 He perceived that he was bound with the cords of poverty when beholding the true riches he entreated them also for his disciples St Gregory Morals on the Book of Job Vol III p 176 By grace ye are saved To save to redeem to deliver are in the general terms equivalent and they do all of them suppose us to be in a state of thraldom and misery therefore this word saved in the sense that the apostle here doth use it is a word of great worth forasmuch as the miseries from which we are saved is the misery of all most dreadful John Bunyan Saved by Grace |
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BABYLON |