A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 49
XLIX. The Reasons why the Lord was pleased to be born on our Earth, rather than on any other.
AMONG the various reasons why the Lord was pleased to assume a Natural Humanity on our earth, and not an another, the principal was for the sake of the Word, that this might be written in the letter, and when written be published through the whole world, and once published be preserved to all posterity; and that thus it might be made manifest, even to all in another life, that God himself became Man. The Word, which is divine truth, teaches that there is a God. that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death: it moreover instructs man how he ought to live and to believe, that he may come into heaven, and thereby be happy to eternity. All these things without a revelation, and in the present state of mankind without the Word, would have been altogether unknown; and yet man is so created, that as to his spirit or soul he can never die.
It is well known, that the art of writing has prevailed here from the most ancient time, first on the rind or bark of trees, next on skins or parchment, afterwards on paper, and lastly that the art of printing with types has succeeded. This was provided of the Lord for the sake of the Word, that it might be published, multiplied, and preserved through all ages. It's publication through the whole earth is facilitated by means of the general commerce or communication, which subsists among all nations, both by land and water: so that the Word, once written and printed, may be transferred from one country to another, and be every where taught. Such communication was also provided of the Lord for the sake of the Word, and the incalculable blessings resulting from a knowledge of it's divine contents.
The first and most essential thing, on account of which the Word was given, is, as before observed, that it might be made known to all, that God hath been made a Man: for no one can believe in a God, and love a God, without contemplating him under some appearance or form. Hence it is, that they who acknowledge him in no form, but regard him as a something incomprehensible, diffused through infinite space, sink in their thought into nature, and thereby believe in no God, however they may profess the contrary with their lips. Such being the danger, to which man is exposed, who thinks of a Divine Being without light from heaven, it therefore pleased the Lord to be born here, and to make this manifest by the Word, that it might not only be made known to the inhabitants of this globe, but to all in the universe, who come into heaven from any other earth whatsoever.
It is to be observed, that the Word on our earth, given through heaven from the Lord, is a permanent medium of conjunction between heaven and the world: for which end there is a correspondence of all things in the letter of the Word, with divine things in heaven. But on every other earth divine truth is revealed to the inhabitants in an audible way by spirits and angels, and is therefore necessarily repeated from time to time, as they stand in need of it, for the regulation of their faith and life.
The Lord accepts and receives all, from whatsoever earth they be, who acknowledge and worship God under a human form, since God under a human form is the Lord. And as the Lord appears to the inhabitants of the different earths in an angelic form, which is the same as the human form, therefore when spirits and angels from those earths hear from the spirits and angels of our earth, that God actually is a Man, they receive that Word, acknowledge it, and rejoice that it is so.
To the reasons above adduced, why the Lord was pleased to be born on this earth, and not on another, may be added, that the inhabitants, spirits, and angels of our earth, in the Grand Man of Heaven Universal, have reference to the external and corporeal sense; and the external and corporeal sense is the ultimate, in which the interiors of life close, and in which they rest as in their common basis. The case is similar in regard to divine truth in the letter, which is called the Word, and which on this account also was given on this earth, and not on another. Now since the Lord is the Word, and it's first and last, that all things might exist according to order, he was willing also on this account to be born on this earth, and he made the Word Incarnate, according to what is written in John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us." John i. 1, 3, 14.
By descending therefore on this earth, and assuming the Humanity among the meanest and most sensual of the human kind, and particularly among the Jewish people, who without injustice may be considered as the vilest of the vile, the Lord in mercy has extended the benefits of redemption not only to the men of this earth, but to all the inhabitants of the universe. For in the deliverance wrought for the lowest, he at the same time included the highest; and thus both angels and men of every class and degree of life may participate in the blessings, which his divine love, wisdom, and power, have provided for them.
