260. 7. The merely natural man confirms himself against the Divine Providence by the fact that Judaism still continues. That is, that the Jews have not been converted after so many centuries, although they live among Christians, and do not, in accordance with the prophecies in the Word, confess the Lord and acknowledge Him to be the Messiah who, as they think, was to lead them back to the land of Canaan; but they constantly persist in denying Him; and yet it is well with them. Those who think thus, however, and so call in question the Divine Providence, do not know that by the Jews in the Word are meant all who are of the Church and acknowledge the Lord, and that by the land of Canaan, into which it is said they are to be led, is meant the Lord's Church. [2] The Jews, however, persist in their denial of the Lord because their character is such that if they were to receive and acknowledge the Divinity of the Lord and the holy things of His Church they would profane them. Therefore the Lord says of them:
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. John xii. 42 (A.V. 40); Matt. xiii. 14; Mark iv. 12; Luke viii. 10; Isa. vi. 9, 10. It is said, lest they should be converted, and I should heal them, because if they had been converted and healed they would have committed profanation; and it is according to the law of the Divine Providence treated above (n. 221-233), that no one is admitted by the Lord interiorly into the truths of faith and the goods of charity except so far as he can be kept in them right on to the end of life; and if he were admitted he would profane what is holy. [3] This nation has been preserved and dispersed over a great part of the world for the sake of the Word in its original language, which they more than Christians hold sacred; and in every particular of the Word is the Divinity of the Lord, for it is Divine Truth united to Divine Good proceeding from the Lord and by means of this the Word becomes the conjunction of the Lord with the Church and the presence of heaven with man, as has been shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 62-69); and there is the presence of the Lord and of heaven wherever the Word is read with reverence. This is the end which the Divine Providence has in view, in preserving and dispersing them over a great part of the world. The nature of their lot after death may be seen in THE CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD (n. 79-82).