NEUOFFENBARUNG← Secrets of Heaven · Volume 2 · Contents
1834. The fowls came down upon the bodies. That this signifies evils and the falsities thence derived that were desirous to destroy, is evident from the signification of “fowls,” as being falsities. “Fowls” in the Word signify truth-as shown above-and also in the opposite sense falsity (for almost all such things in the Word are thus used in both senses); that “fowls” signify falsity also has been shown before (n. 778, 866, 988). Everyone can see that this signifies arcana; otherwise it would not have been worthy of mention. What the arcanum is has also been already stated, and is evident from the series or connection of things in the internal sense, namely, that it is concerning the state of the church.
[2] When a church is raised up by the Lord, it is in the beginning blameless, and the one then loves the other as his brother, as is known from the case of the primitive church after the Lord’s coming. All the church’s children then lived together as brethren, and likewise called one another brethren, and loved one another; but in process of time charity grew cold and vanished away and as it vanished, evils succeeded, and together with these falsities insinuated themselves. Hence came schisms and heresies, which would never be the case if charity were regnant and alive, for then they would not even call schism schism, nor heresy heresy, but a doctrinal matter in accordance with each person’s opinion; and this they would leave to each person’s conscience, provided such doctrinal matter did not deny first principles, that is, the Lord, eternal life, and the Word; and provided it was not contrary to the Divine order, that is, to the precepts of the Decalogue.
[3] The evils and the falsities thence derived which succeed in the church when charity vanishes, are what are here meant by the fowls which Abram drove away, that is, which the Lord, who is here represented by Abram, put to flight. Abram drove away nothing but the fowls, and nothing at all of evil and falsity; nor is Abraham known in heaven except as is any other man, who can do nothing at all of himself; but the Lord alone; as also is said by Isaiah:
Thou art our Father, for Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us; Thou O Jehovah art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting (Isa. 63:16).
1835. And Abram drove them away. That this signifies that the Lord put them to flight, is evident from what has been said. And such also is the case with a church when it is beginning to recede from charity. Evils and the falsities thence derived are then more easily put to flight, for as yet the church is in a state that is not so far removed from charity, and thus men’s minds are more easily bent. But in process of time evils and the falsities derived from them increase, and so are confirmed and strengthened; and this is treated of in what follows.
[2] So far as possible the Lord is continually putting evils and falsities to flight, but through conscience. When conscience is relaxed, there is no medium through which the Lord can flow in, for the Lord’s influx with man is by means of charity into his conscience. But in place of this charity a new medium succeeds and is formed, which is external, namely, the fear of the law, fear for life, for honors and wealth, and the reputation from these. But these are not of conscience; they are only external bonds which enable a man to live in society with others, and to appear as a friend, whatsoever he may be inwardly.
[3] But this medium, or these bonds, are of no account in the other life, for there externals are removed, and everyone remains as he is internally. There are very many who have lived a moral and a civic life, have injured no one, have performed acts of friendship and civility, nay, have done good to many, but only for the sake of self, with a view to honors, gain, and the like. In the other life these are among the infernals, because they have nothing of good and truth within, but only evil and falsity, nay, hatred, revenge, cruelty, adulteries, which do not appear before man, that is to say insofar as the fears just referred to, which are external bonds, prevail.
1836. Verse 12. And it came to pass when the sun was going down, that a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold a terror of great darkness falling upon him. “The sun was going down,” signifies the time and the state before the consummation; “that a deep sleep fell upon Abram,” signifies that the church was then in darkness; “and behold a terror of great darkness falling upon him,” signifies that the darkness was terrible; “darkness” means falsities.
1837. The sun was going down. That this signifies the time and the state before the consummation, is evident from the signification of “the sun.” In the internal sense “the sun” signifies the Lord, and thence it signifies the celestial things which are of love and charity, consequently love itself and charity (spoken of above, n. 30-38, and n. 1053). From this it is evident that the “going down of the sun” denotes the last time of the church, which is called the consummation, when there is no longer any charity. The Lord’s church is also compared to the times of the day; its first period to the rising of the sun, or to the dawn and the morning; its last to the setting of the sun, or to the evening and the shades then prevailing, for the two things are similarly circumstanced. The church is also compared to the times of the year; its first period to the spring, when all things are in bloom; that which is before the last to the autumn, when they begin to become inactive. It is even compared to the metals; its first period is called golden; its last, iron and clay; as in Daniel (2:31-33). From all this it is evident what is signified by “the going down of the sun,” namely, that it signifies the time and the state before the consummation, seeing that the sun had not yet set. In what follows, the state of the church when the sun has set is treated of, in that there was then thick darkness and the smoke of a furnace, and that a torch of fire passed between the pieces.
1838. A deep sleep fell upon Abram. That this signifies that the church was then in darkness, is evident from the signification of “a deep sleep.” A “deep sleep,” relatively to one of wakefulness, denotes a dark state; and this state is here attributed to the Lord, who is represented by Abram; not that there was ever with Him a deep sleep or a state of darkness, but that there was with the church. The case herein is the same as it is in the other life, where the Lord is always the Sun, and Light, itself; but where before the evil He appears as darkness; for the Lord appears according to the state of each person. So here this is said of the church when it is in a state of darkness.
[2] Also take as an example, vastation, punishment, and condemnation, which are attributed to the Lord in many passages of the Word; when nevertheless they belong to the man of the church, who vastates, punishes, and condemns himself. It appears before man as if the Lord vastated, punished, and condemned; and because it appears so, it is so expressed according to the appearances; for if man were not instructed by appearances, he would not suffer himself to be instructed at all. What is contrary to the appearance he does not believe or comprehend, except at a later period, when he possesses judgment and has been gifted with the faith of charity.
[3] So with the church; when it is in a state of darkness, the Lord is then obscured before its people, so that He does not appear, that is, is not acknowledged; although the Lord is not at all obscured, but man, in whom and with whom the Lord should be; but still the obscuration is predicated of the Lord. So is it here with the “deep sleep,” by which there is signified a dark state of the church.
1839. Behold a terror of great darkness falling upon him. That this signifies that the darkness was terrible, and that “darkness” means falsities, is evident from the signification of “darkness,” as being falsities, to be explained presently. The state of the church before its consummation, when the sun was “going down,” is described by the “terror of great darkness;” but its state when the sun had gone down is described by the “thick darkness” and the other things mentioned in verse 17.
[2] The same is thus described by the Lord in Matthew:
The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matt. 24:29).
This does not mean that the sun of the world will be darkened, but the celestial which is of love and charity; nor the moon, but the spiritual which is of faith; nor that the stars will fall from heaven, but that the knowledges of good and truth with the man of the church will do so, for these are “the powers of the heavens;” nor will these things take place in heaven, but on earth; for heaven is never darkened.
[3] That “a terror of great darkness fell upon him,” means that the Lord was horrified at so great a vastation. So far as anyone is in the celestial things of love, so far does he feel horror when he perceives a consummation. So it was with the Lord, above all others; for He was in love itself, both celestial and Divine.
[4] That “darkness” signifies falsities is evident from very many passages in the Word; as in Isaiah:
Woe unto them that put darkness for light, and light for darkness (Isa. 5:20);
“darkness” denotes falsities, and “light” truths. In the same:
He shall look onto the land, and behold darkness, distress, and the light is darkened (Isa. 5:30);
“darkness” denoting falsities, and “the light darkened” the truth not appearing.
[5] In the same:
Behold, darkness covereth the earth, and thick darkness the peoples (Isa. 60:2).
In Amos:
The day of Jehovah, it is darkness, and not light. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? and thick darkness and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18, 20).
In Zephaniah:
The great day of Jehovah is near; that day is a day of wrath, a day of straitness and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and shade (Zeph. 1:14-15).
In these passages, the “day of Jehovah” denotes the last time and state of the church; “darkness and thick darkness” falsities and evils.
[6] The Lord likewise calls falsities “darkness” in Matthew:
If thine eye be evil, thy whole body is* darkened. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness (Matt. 6:33).
“Darkness” here denotes the falsities which take possession of those who are in knowledges; and the meaning is, how great is this darkness above that of others, or of the Gentiles,, who have not knowledges.
[7] Again in Matthew:
The sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13).
“The outer darkness” denotes the more direful falsities of those who are in the church; for they darken the light, and bring up falsities against truths, which Gentiles cannot do. In John:
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light appeareth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:4-5).
“The darkness” here denotes falsities within the church.
[8] Falsities outside of the church are also called “darkness,” but such as can be illuminated. Such are spoken of in Matthew:
The people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them that sat in the region and shadow of death, did light spring up (Matt. 4:16);
“darkness” here denoting the falsities of ignorance, such as are those of the Gentiles.
[9] In John:
And this is the judgment, that the Light is come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their works were evil (John 3:19);
“the Light” denotes truths, and “the darkness” falsities; and “the Light” denotes the Lord, because all truth is from Him; and “the darkness” the hells, because all falsity is from them.
[10] Again:
Jesus said, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness (John 8:12).
And again:
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness seize upon you, for he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me may not abide in the darkness (John 12:35, 46).
“The light” denotes the Lord, from whom are all good and truth; “the darkness” falsities, which are dispersed by the Lord alone.
[11] The falsities of the last times, which are called “darkness” in the verse before us, or of which the “terror of great darkness” is predicated, were represented and signified by the darkness that came upon the whole earth, from the sixth hour to the ninth [at the crucifixion], and also by the sun being then darkened, by which was represented and signified that there was then no longer either love or faith (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45).
* Est: but elsewhere erit, as n. 9051.
1840. Verse 13. And He said unto Abram, Knowing thou shall know that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. “He said unto Abram,” signifies a perception; “knowing thou shalt know,” signifies that it is certain; “thy seed shall be a stranger,” signifies that charity and faith shall be rare; in a land that is not theirs,” signifies where there is a church that is as it were not composed of those who are in charity and faith; “and they shall serve them,” signifies oppression; “and they shall afflict them,” signifies their severe temptations; “four hundred years,” signifies the duration and state.
1841. He said unto Abram. That this signifies a perception, is evident from what has been already said (at verse 9 and elsewhere), where the same words have the same signification.
1842. Knowing thou shalt know. That this signifies that it is certain, is evident without explication.
1843. Thy seed shall be a stranger. That this signifies that charity and faith shall be rare, is evident from the signification of “a stranger,” and of “seed.” A “stranger” or “sojourner” signifies one that is not born in the land, so that he is not acknowledged as a native, and thus is looked upon as an alien. But “seed” signifies charity and its faith (as before shown, n. 255, 1025; and just above at verse 3). Because that is called “strange” which is looked upon as alien, and alien is that which is not in the land or of the land, it follows that it is that which is rare; and consequently it here means that charity and the faith of charity, which are the “seed,” will be rare. It is the time before the consummation that is here treated of, when there shall be “great darkness,” that is, falsities; the seed shall then be a stranger, that is, charity and faith will then be rare.
[2] That faith would be rare in the last times was foretold by the Lord when He spoke of the consummation of the age (Matt. 24:4-51; Mark 13:3-37; Luke 21:7-38), where everything that is said implies that charity and faith will be rare at those times, and that at last there will be none. The like is said by John in Revelation, and also in many passages of the Prophets, besides what is said in the historical parts of the Word.
[3] But by the faith that will perish in the last times there is meant nothing but charity, for there cannot possibly be any faith but the faith of charity. He who has not charity cannot have any faith at all, for charity is the very soil in which faith is implanted; it is its heart, from which it exists and lives. The ancients therefore compared love and charity to the heart, and faith to the lungs, both of which are in the breast. This comparison involves a real likeness, seeing that if a man should pretend to a life of faith without charity, it would be like having life from the lungs alone without the heart, which is manifestly impossible; and therefore the ancients called all things that pertain to charity things of the heart, and all things that pertain to faith without charity they said were of the mouth only, or of the lungs by the influx of the breathing into the speech. Thence came the ancient forms of speech concerning good and truth; that they must go forth from the heart.
1844. In a land which is not theirs. That this signifies where there is a church that is as it were not composed of those who are in charity and faith, is evident from the signification of “a land,” as being the church (see n. 566, 662, 1066, 1067). At this day men speak of the church as existing from the mere doctrinals of faith, and thereby distinguish the churches of the Lord, not caring what life men live-whether they cherish inward hatreds, and tear one another like wild beasts, rob one another, and deprive others of reputation, honor, and wealth, and at heart deny whatever is holy. And yet with such there is no church at all; but the church is with those who love the Lord, and who love the neighbor as themselves, who have conscience, and are averse to such hatreds as have been mentioned. But among those previously described these men are like strangers, and are treated with the utmost possible abuse and persecution, or else are regarded as being simple, mean, and of no account. This then is what is meant by “thy seed shall be a stranger in the land.”
1845. And they shall serve them. That this signifies oppression, may be seen from what has just been said.
1846. And they shall afflict them. That this signifies their severe temptations, may be seen from the signification of “afflicting,” or of “affliction,” as being persecution, consequently temptation. In the Word of the Lord nothing else is signified by “affliction.” As in Isaiah:
I will purge thee, and not with silver; I will choose thee in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10),
“affliction” denoting temptation. In Moses:
Thou shalt remember all the way by which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict thee, to tempt thee. Jehovah, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not, that He might afflict thee, and that He might tempt thee, to do thee good at thy latter end (Deut. 8:2, 16);
to “afflict” manifestly denotes to tempt.
[2] In the same:
When the Egyptians did evil unto us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard servitude; and we cried unto Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression (Deut. 26:6-7).
Here we find the same things as in the present verse: that they “served” and were “afflicted,” by which in like manner are signified the temptations of the faithful, as likewise by their afflictions in the wilderness, by which also there were represented the temptations of the Lord.
[3] As in Isaiah:
He was despised, a man of sorrows, and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. But truly He hath borne our diseases, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (Isa. 53:3-4).
By these words are signified the Lord’s temptations; by His “bearing our sicknesses, and carrying our sorrows,” is not meant that the faithful are to undergo no temptations, nor is it meant that He took their sins upon Himself, and so bore them; but it means that by the combats and victories of temptations He overcame the hells, and in this way would alone, even as to His Human Essence, endure the temptations of the faithful.
[4] Temptations are also called by the Lord “afflictions;” as in Mark:
They that are sown upon stony places, when they have heard the Word have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; afterwards, when affliction and persecution arise because of the Word, straightway they are offended (Mark 4:16-17).
“Affliction” here manifestly denotes temptation; to “have no root in themselves” is to have no charity, for in this is faith rooted, and they who have not the support of this root yield in temptations. In John:
In the world ye have affliction; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
“Affliction” here denotes temptation.
[5] In Matthew:
Nation shall be stirred up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; all these things are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up unto affliction. Then shall be great affliction, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world. Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened (Matt. 24:7-9, 21, 29).
Here the consummation of the age, or the last times of the church, are treated of; “affliction” denotes temptations, both external and internal, the external being persecutions from the world, and the internal being persecutions from the devil. That there will be no charity, is signified by “nation being stirred against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;” also by “the sun,” that is, the Lord and love and charity, being “darkened.”
1847. Four hundred years. That this signifies the duration and state, namely, of the temptations, is evident from the signification of “four hundred,” which number signifies the same as “forty,” namely, the durations and states of temptations (see n. 730, 862). The durations of temptations, both the shorter and the more lasting, are described in the Word by “forty.” In the literal sense the words before us relate to the stay of the sons of Jacob in Egypt; and that this was four hundred and thirty years is evident from Exodus 12:40; though the time was not so great as reckoned from Jacob’s coming into Egypt, but it was reckoned from Abram’s sojourn there, as has been observed before. The number four hundred and thirty is mentioned, from Abram’s sojourn, for the reason that this number involves the temptations which they represented by their servitude in Egypt, and afterwards also by the forty years’ afflictions in the wilderness.
1848. Verse 14. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and after that shall they go out with great substance. “And also that nation whom they shall serve,” signifies the evil who oppress; “will I judge” signifies visitation and judgment; “and after that shall they go out with great substance,” signifies deliverance, and that they will have celestial and spiritual goods.
1849. And also that nation whom they shall serve. That this signifies the evil who oppress, is evident from the signification of a “nation” and of “serving.” In the genuine sense a “nation” signifies goods, or what is the same, good persons; for when goods are spoken of in the abstract, they are in a subject; and this is a man, a spirit, or an angel. But in the opposite sense a “nation” signifies evils, or what is the same, the evil (see n. 1159, 1258-1260). But to “serve,” or “servitude,” signifies oppression, as in the preceding verse.
1850. Will I judge. That this signifies visitation and judgment, may be seen without explication. By “judging,” or “judgment,” there is not signified any last judgment, as people in general suppose, that is, that the heaven and the earth are to perish, and that so a new heaven and a new earth will be created, as spoken of in the Prophets and in Revelation; and thus that all things are to perish, which opinion has spread itself so widely that it has even taken possession of the minds of those who are best instructed; and this to such a degree that they do not believe that the dead are to rise except at that time. And therefore because this time was foretold, and still, after so many centuries have since passed by, they see that it has not come and is not at hand, feeling safe they confirm themselves in their assurance that there is no such thing, and therefore that they will not rise again. But it is to be known that by the last judgment, or by the destruction of heaven and earth, no such thing is meant. According to the sense of the letter it is so; but not at all according to the internal sense: in this sense the last judgment means the last time of the church; the heaven and earth that will perish, mean the church as to internal and external worship, which becomes no church when there is no charity.
[2] There was a last judgment of the Most Ancient Church when all charity and faith had failed, and when there was no perception, as was the case just before the flood. The flood itself, treated of above, was the last judgment of that church; heaven and earth, that is, the church, then perished; and a new heaven and a new earth, that is, a new church, were created, which was called the Ancient Church, and which also has been treated of. This church likewise had its last time, namely, when all charity grew cold and all faith was darkened, which was about the time of Eber. This time was the last judgment of that church; which was the heaven and earth that had perished.
[3] The Hebrew Church was a new heaven and a new earth, and this too had its last time, or last judgment, when it became idolatrous; and then a new church was raised up among the descendants of Jacob, which was called the Jewish Church, and which was a church that was merely representative of charity and faith. In this church, that is, among the descendants of Jacob, there was neither charity nor faith, and therefore no church, but only the representative of a church, for the reason that it had become impossible for there to be immediate communication of the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens with any true church on earth, and therefore a mediate communication was effected by means of representatives. The last time of this so-called church, or its last judgment, was when the Lord came into the world; for the representatives then ceased, that is, the sacrifices and similar rites; and in order that these might cease, the Jews were cast out of the land of Canaan.
[4] After this a new heaven and a new earth were created, that is, a new church, which is to be called the Primitive Church, which was commenced by the Lord, and afterwards gradually became stronger, and which at first was in charity and faith. The destruction of this church is foretold by the Lord in the Gospels, and by John in Revelation; and this destruction is what is called the Last Judgment. Not that heaven and earth are now to perish, but that in some quarter of the globe a new church will be raised up, the present one remaining in its external worship, as the Jews do in theirs, in whose worship it is well known that there is nothing of charity and faith, that is, nothing of the church. So far as regards the last judgment in general.
[5] In particular, there is a last judgment for everyone immediately after he dies; for he then passes into the other life, in which, when he comes into the life that he had had in the body, he is adjudged either to death or to life. There is also a last judgment in the singular, for with a man who is adjudged to death, every single thing condemns him, for there is nothing in his thought and will, not even the least thing, that does not resemble his last judgment, and that does not drag him to death. In like manner with the man who is adjudged to life: in him every single thing of his thought and of his will presents an image of his last judgment, and all carry him on to life. For such as is man in general, such is he in the singulars of his thought and of his affection. These are the things that are signified by the last judgment.
1851. And after that shall they go out with great substance. That this signifies deliverance, and that they will have celestial and spiritual goods, is evident from the signification of “going out,” which is to be liberated, and from the signification of “substance,” which is celestial and spiritual goods, for this is the substance of those who suffer the persecutions, and undergo the temptations, oppressions, afflictions, or servitudes, that are treated of in this and the preceding verses. These goods are also represented and signified by the substance of the sons of Jacob when they went out of Egypt (Exod. 11:2; 12:36); and also by their substance in the land of Canaan when the nations had been driven out; and in the Prophets, whenever the spoils taken from their enemies are treated of, by which they were enriched.
1852. Verse 15. And thou shall go to thy fathers in peace, thou shall be buried in a good old age. “Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace,” signifies that nothing of the goods and truths shall be harmed; “thou shalt be buried in a good old age,” signifies the enjoyment of all goods by those who are the Lord’s.
1853. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. That this signifies that nothing of the goods and truths shall be harmed, may be seen from the signification of “fathers,” also of “going to one’s fathers,” and of “peace.” In the internal sense, “fathers” here signify the same as “daughters” and “sons” taken together. That “daughters” signify goods, and “sons” truths, has been shown before (n. 489-491, 533, 1147); hence “fathers” signify the things which belong to daughters and sons together. To “go to one’s fathers” is to pass from the life of the body into the life of the spirit, or from the world into the other life. “In peace,” signifies that he shall lose nothing, and thus that nothing shall be harmed, for he who passes into the other life loses nothing of the things that belong to him as a man; he retains and has with him everything except the body, which had been an impediment to the interior exercise of his faculties. That no death, or passing to the fathers by death, is here meant, will be evident from what next follows.
1854. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. That this signifies the enjoyment of all goods by those who are the Lord’s, is evident from the fact that those who die and are buried do not die, but pass from an obscure life into a clear one. For the death of the body is merely the continuation and also the perfection of the life, and they who are the Lord’s then first come into the enjoyment of all goods, which enjoyment is signified by “a good old age.” The expressions that they “died,” were “buried,” and were “gathered to their fathers,” are often met with, but in the internal sense these do not signify the same as in the sense of the letter. In the internal sense are such things as are of the life after death and are eternal; but in the sense of the letter are such as are of the life in the world and belong to time.
[2] Consequently they who are in the internal sense (as the angels are) when such expressions are met with never abide in ideas of death and burial, but in such as relate to the continuance of life, for they regard death as nothing but the putting off of those things which are of grossest nature and of time, and as being a continuation of the real life; in fact they do not know what death is, for they think nothing about it. And the like is the case with the ages of man, so that when it is here said “in a good old age,” the angels have no perception at all of old age, indeed they do not know what old age is, for they are constantly verging toward the life of early manhood and of youth. Such life, and consequently the celestial and spiritual things of it, are what are meant when “a good old age” and similar expressions occur in the Word.
1855. Verse 16. And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet consummated. “In the fourth generation they shall return hither,” signifies the time and state of restoration; “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet consummated,” signifies the last time, when there is no longer any good.
1856. In the fourth generation they shall return hither. That this signifies the time and state of restoration, is evident from the signification of “the fourth generation.” “The fourth generation” signifies the same as “forty” and as “four hundred;” namely, the duration and the state of temptation, spoken of at verse 13; it is a sort of diminutive from these. Whether a number be larger or smaller, provided it be of the same stock, it involves the same; as has already been stated several times. That “the fourth generation” does not signify any generation from Abram, or from Isaac, or from Jacob, is evident from the historicals of the Word; for there were more generations, and these people were very different from their fathers when they returned. “The fourth generation” is an expression that occurs likewise in other places, yet in the internal sense it never signifies any generation; and here it signifies the time and state of restoration, because it signifies the end of those things which are signified by “forty” or by “four hundred” (see n. 862, 1847).
1857. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet consummated. That this signifies the last time, when there is no longer any good, is evident from the signification of “the Amorite,” and also from the signification of “consummation.” By “the Amorite” in the Word, is signified evil in general, for the reason that the land of Canaan was called the land of the Amorites (as is evident in Ezek. 16:3, 4; Amos 2:9, 10). And therefore by “the Amorite” in this passage are signified all the nations of the land of Canaan; and by these, as before said, were signified evils and falsities specifically; and consequently by “the Amorite” are signified all evils in general. By “consummation” is signified the last time, when there is no longer any good.
[2] But what is meant in the internal sense by the fact that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet consummated, is an arcanum. For the state of the case with the evil in the other life is that they are not punished until their evils have reached their height, and this both in general and in particular. For such is the equilibrium in the other life that evil punishes itself, that is to say those who are evil run into the punishment of their evil, but only when it has reached its height. Every evil has its limit that varies in each individual case, beyond which it is not allowable to pass. When an evil person passes beyond this limit he precipitates himself into the penalty, and this is so in every particular.
[3] It is the same in general, the wicked thrust themselves down into hell, not in a moment, but successively. This has its origin in the universal law of order established by the Lord, that the Lord never casts anyone down into hell; but that evil casts itself down, or that the evil person casts himself down, and this successively, until the evil has been consummated, and nothing of good any longer appears. So long as there is any good, he is uplifted above hell; but when there is nothing but evil, of himself he is thrust down into it. Good and evil must first be separated from each other, for they are opposites; and no one is allowed to incline both ways. This is what is signified by the iniquity of the Amorites having to be consummated. But with the good the case is otherwise; they are continually uplifted by the Lord toward heaven, and their evil is successively wiped away.
[4] The same is the case with the state of a church. The visitation does not come until its evil has been consummated, that is, until there is no longer any good of charity and truth of faith. This consummation is very often spoken of in the Prophets. As in Isaiah:
A consummation and a decree have I heard from the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth upon the whole earth (Isa. 28:22).
In Jeremiah:
O Babel, that dwellest upon many waters, great in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy gain (Jer. 51:13).
In Daniel:
Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon the city of thy holiness, to consummate the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to expiate iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies (Dan. 9:24).
At length upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation, and even unto the consummation and the decree shall it pour itself out upon the devastation (Dan. 9:27).
[5] The consummation is also foretold by the Lord Himself in these words of Luke:
They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive among all the nations; and at length Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations, until the times of the nations shall be fulfilled (Luke 21:24).
To “fall by the edge of the sword,” signifies by falsities, for “a sword” in the Word is the punishment of what is false; “Jerusalem” denotes the Lord’s kingdom and the church (see n. 402); “nations” evils (see n. 1260). Thus the signification is that there would be a consummation when the church should be possessed by evils and falsities, and so be destroyed of itself.
1858. Verse 17. And it came to pass that the sun went down, and there was thick darkness; and behold a furnace of smoke, and a torch of fire, which passed between those pieces. “And it came to pass that the sun went down,” signifies the last time, when the consummation came; “and there was thick darkness,” signifies when hatred was in the place of charity; “and behold a furnace of smoke,” signifies the densest falsity; “and a torch of fire,” signifies the burning heat of cupidities; “which passed between those pieces,” signifies that it separated those who were of the church from the Lord.
1859. And it came to pass that the sun went down. That this signifies the last time, when the consummation came, is evident from what was said above (at verse 12) concerning the setting of the sun and its signification, namely, that it is the last time of the church.
1860. And there was thick darkness. That this signifies when hatred was in the place of charity, is evident from the signification of “thick darkness.” In the Word “darkness” signifies falsities, and “thick darkness” evils (as shown just below). There is “darkness” when falsity is in the place of truth; and there is “thick darkness” when evil is in the place of good, or what is precisely the same, when hatred is in the place of charity. When hatred is in the place of charity, the thick darkness is so great that the man is quite unaware that it is evil, still less that it is so great an evil as in the other life to thrust him down to hell, for they who are in hatred perceive a kind of delight and as it were a kind of life in it, and this delight and life themselves cause him scarcely to know but that it is good, for whatever favors a man’s pleasure and cupidity, because it favors his love, he feels as good, and this to such a degree that when he is told that it is infernal he can scarcely believe it, still less when he is told that such delight and life are in the other life turned the stench of excrement and cadavers. And still less does he believe that he is becoming a devil and a horrible image of hell; for hell consists of nothing but hatreds and such diabolical forms.
[2] Yet anyone might know this who possesses any faculty for thinking, for if he should describe or represent, or if he could in any manner picture, hatred, he would do it no otherwise than by diabolical forms, such as those who are in hatred also become after death, and, wonderful to say, such men are capable of declaring that in the other life they shall come into heaven; some merely for saying that they have faith, when yet there are in heaven none but forms of charity, and what these are may be seen from experience (n. 553). Let all such therefore consider how these two forms, of hatred and of charity, can agree together in one place.
[3] That “darkness” signifies falsity, and “thick darkness” evil, may be seen from the following passages in the Word. In Isaiah:
Behold, darkness covereth the earth, and thick darkness the peoples (Isa. 60:2).
In Joel:
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Jehovah cometh, a day of darkness and thick darkness (Joel 2:1-2).
In Zephaniah:
That day is a day of wrath, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and thick darkness (Zeph. 1:15).
In Amos:
Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light, and thick darkness and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:20).
In these passages “the day of Jehovah” denotes the last time of the church, which is here treated of; “darkness” denotes falsities, “thick darkness” evils; both therefore are mentioned; otherwise it would be a repetition of the same thing, or an unmeaning amplification. But the word in the original language that in this verse is rendered “thick darkness” involves falsity as well as evil, that is, dense falsity from which is evil, and also dense evil from which is falsity.
1861. And behold a furnace of smoke and a torch of fire. That “a furnace of smoke” signifies the densest falsity, and “a torch of fire” the burning heat of cupidities, is evident from the signification of “a furnace of smoke” as being dense falsity, and from the signification of “a torch of fire” as being the burning heat of cupidities. It is said “a furnace of smoke,” because a man, especially a man of the church, who has a knowledge of the truth and still does not acknowledge, but in heart denies it, and indeed passes his life in things contrary to the truth, appears no otherwise than as a furnace of smoke-himself as the furnace, and the falsity from his hatreds as the smoke. The cupidities from which are the falsities appear as torches of fire from such a furnace, as is evident also from the representatives in the other life (described from experience, n. 814, 1528). It is cupidities of hatred, revenge, cruelties, adulteries-and still more when these are mingled with deceits-that appear and become such things.
[2] That by a “furnace,” “smoke,” and “fire” such things are signified in the Word may be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:
Everyone is a hypocrite and a wicked one, and every mouth speaketh folly. For wickedness burneth as the fire, it devoureth the briars and thorns, and kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they mount up as the rising of smoke. In the wrath of Jehovah Zebaoth is the land darkened, and the people is become like food for fire; a man shall not spare his brother (Isa. 9:17-19).
Here “fire” denotes hatreds and “the rising of smoke” from it such falsities; hatred is described by “no man sparing his brother;” for when such men are looked upon by the angels they appear no otherwise than as here described.
[3] In Joel:
I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come (Joel 2:30-31).
Here “fire” denotes hatred; “pillars of smoke” falsities; “the sun” charity; and “the moon” faith.
[4] In Isaiah:
The land shall become burning pitch; it shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up to eternity (Isa. 34:9-10).
“Burning pitch” denotes direful cupidities; and “smoke” falsities.
[5] In Malachi:
Behold the day cometh burning as a furnace, and all the proud and everyone that worketh wickedness shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, it shall leave them neither root nor branch (Mal. 4:1).
A “burning furnace” here denotes the same as before; the “root” denotes charity; the “branch” truth, which shall not be left.
[6] In Hosea:
Ephraim became guilty in Baal, he shall be as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney (Hos. 13:1, 3).
“Ephraim” denotes an intelligent man who becomes such.
[7] In Isaiah:
The strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them (Isa. 1:31);
meaning those who are in the love of self, or what is the same, in hatred against the neighbor, in that they shall be thus kindled by their own cupidities. In John:
Babylon is become a habitation of demons. They cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning. Her smoke goeth up for ever and ever (Rev. 18:2, 18; 19:3).
[8] In the same:
He opened the pit of the abyss, and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air, from the smoke of the pit (Rev. 9:2).
In the same:
Out of the mouths of the horses went forth fire and smoke and brimstone. By these was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, that went forth out of their mouth (Rev. 9:17-18).
In the same:
He that worshipeth the beast shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out unmixed in the cup of His anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:9-10).
In the same:
The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire; and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God (Rev. 16:8-9).
In like manner it is said that
They were cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:20; 20:14-15; 21:8).
[9] In these passages “fire” denotes the cupidities, and “smoke” the falsities that will reign in the last times. These things were seen by John when his interior sight was opened, just as they appear in the other life. Similar things are also seen by spirits, and by souls after death. Hence it may be seen what hell fire is, that it is nothing but hatred, revenge, and cruelty, or what is the same, the love of self; for such do these become. During his life in the body, any man of such a quality, however he might appear outwardly, if inspected closely by the angels would appear no otherwise in their eyes, that is, his hatreds would appear as torches of fire, and the falsities derived from them as furnaces of smoke.
[10] Concerning this fire the Lord thus speaks in Matthew:
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire (Matt. 3:10; Luke 3:9);
by “good fruit” is meant charity: he who deprives himself of this cuts himself down, and casts himself into such fire. Again:
The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire (Matt. 13:41-42, 50),
with a like meaning. And again:
The king saith unto those on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).
[11] That they should be “sent into the eternal fire,” “the Gehenna of fire,” and that “their worm should not die, and their fire should not be quenched” (Matt. 18:8-9; Mark 9:43-49), have a like meaning. In Luke:
Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:24),
with a like meaning.
[12] They who are not acquainted with the arcana of the Lord’s kingdom suppose that the Lord casts the wicked into hell, or into such fire, which, as before said, is that of hatreds; but the case is very different, for it is the man himself, or the diabolical spirit himself, who casts himself down. But because it so appears it has been expressed in the Word according to the appearance, and indeed according to the fallacies of the senses; and especially was this necessary in the case of the Jews, who were unwilling to accept anything at all unless it were in accordance with the senses, whatever might be the fallacies thus involved. On this account the sense of the letter, especially in the prophecies, is full of such things.
[13] As in Jeremiah:
Thus said Jehovah, Judge judgment in the morning, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go forth like fire, and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the wickedness of their works (Jer. 21:12).
To “judge judgment” is to speak truth; to “deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor,” is to do the good of charity; “fire” denotes the infernal punishment of those who do not do these things, that is, who pass their lives in the falsity of hatred. In the sense of the letter such “fire” and “fury” are attributed to Jehovah, but in the internal sense it is quite the contrary.
[14] In like manner in Joel:
The day of Jehovah: a fire devoureth before Him, and behind Him a flame burneth (Joel 2:1, 3).
In David:
There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured, coals did burn from Him, and thick darkness was under His feet (Ps. 18:8-9).
In Moses:
A fire is kindled in Mine anger, and it shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall devour the earth and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains (Deut. 32:22),
where “fire” denotes the hatreds, and “smoke” the falsities which are in men, which are attributed to Jehovah or the Lord for the reasons that have been given. In the hells also the appearance is that Jehovah or the Lord does this, but it is quite the contrary; they do it to themselves, because they are in the fires of hatred. Hence it is manifest how easily a man may fall into phantasies if the internal sense of the Word is not known.
[15] It was similar with the “smoke” and “fire” that were seen by the people on Mount Sinai when the law was promulgated. For Jehovah, or the Lord, appears to everyone according to his quality-to celestial angels as a Sun, to spiritual angels as a Moon, to all the good as a Light of varied delight and pleasantness but to the evil as a smoke and as a consuming fire. And as when the Law was promulgated, the Jews had nothing of charity, but the love of self and of the world prevailed in them, and thus nothing but evils and falsities, He therefore appeared to them as a smoke and fire, when at the same instant He appeared to the angels as the Sun and Light of heaven.
[16] That He so appeared to the Jews because they were of such a character, is evident in Moses:
The glory of Jehovah abode upon Mount Sinai, and the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the sons of Israel (Exod. 24:16-17).
Again:
And Mount Sinai was all of it smoking, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly (Exod. 19:18).
And elsewhere:
Ye came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire, even to the heart of heaven; darkness, cloud, and thick darkness and Jehovah spake unto you out of the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:11-12; 5:22).
Also:
It came to pass when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, that ye came near unto me, and ye said, Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of Jehovah our God any more, then we shall die (Deut. 5:23-25).
[17] Just so would it be with anyone else who should see the Lord, and who has passed his life in hatred and in the foul things of hatreds, for he could see Him no otherwise than from his hatred and its foulnesses, these being the recipients of the rays of good and truth from the Lord, and they would turn these rays into such fire, smoke, and thick darkness. From the same passages it is also plain what the “smoke of the furnace” is, and what the “torch of fire,” namely, the most dense falsity and most filthy evil, that would in the last times take possession of the church.
1862. That passed between those pieces. That this signifies that it separated those who were of the church from the Lord, may be seen from what was said above (at verse 10) concerning the partition of the animals in the midst, as signifying a parallelism and correspondence in respect to celestial things; and that one part being placed opposite the other signified the church and the Lord; and that the intermediate space or interspace signified that which comes in between the Lord and the church, or between the Lord and the man of the church, which is conscience, in which goods and truths have been implanted by means of charity. When hatreds succeed in place of charity, and evils and falsities in place of goods and truths, there is then no conscience of what is good and true; but this middle space or interspace appears to be filled with a furnace of smoke and with torches of fire, that is, with persuasions of falsity and with hatreds, which are what altogether separate the Lord from the church.
[2] These are the things signified by the passing between the pieces; chiefly that of the torch of fire, for this is the love of self, or what is the same, the evil of hatred. This may also be seen in Jeremiah, where we find nearly the same words:
I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant which they made before Me, the calf which they cut in twain and passed between the parts thereof; the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their souls; and their carcass shall be for food to the fowl of the heavens and to the beast of the earth (Jer. 34:14, 18-20).
1863. Verse 18. In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt, even to the great river, the river Euphrates. “In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram,” signifies the conjunction of the Lord’s interior man with His Internal or Jehovah; “saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land,” signifies the consolations after these temptations and horrors, in that they who are in charity and in faith in Him will become heirs; “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates,” signifies the extension of spiritual and celestial things; “to the river of Egypt,” is the extension of spiritual things; “to the river Euphrates,” is the extension of celestial things.
1864. In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram. That this signifies the conjunction of the Lord’s interior man with His Internal, is evident from the signification of a “covenant,” as being conjunction (explained before, n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038). And as the Lord is here treated of in the internal sense, it signifies interior conjunction. For the Lord advanced more and more to conjunction and union with Jehovah His Father, until He became One, that is, the Human Essence itself also became Jehovah, who was the Lord’s Internal itself. These things were represented by the covenant which Jehovah made with Abram. Everyone can see that Jehovah never makes a covenant with a man, for this would be contrary to the Divine. What is a man but something vile and filthy, which of itself thinks and does nothing but evil? All the good that he does is from Jehovah; from which it may be seen that this covenant, like other covenants with Abram’s posterity, was nothing but a representative of the Divine, and of the celestial things of the kingdom of God; in the present case that the covenant was representative of the conjunction of the Lord’s Human Essence with His Divine Essence, that is, with Jehovah. That it was representative of the conjunction of the Lord’s interior man with His Internal, that is, Jehovah, is evident from what has been said before, namely, that by the combats and victories of temptations the Lord conjoined and united Himself more and more. What His interior man was, has been told before, namely, that it was intermediate between the internal man and the external.
1865. Saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land. That this signifies the consolation after these temptations and horrors, in that they who are in charity and faith in Him should become heirs, is evident from the signification of “seed,” and from the signification of the “land.” By the “seed of Abram” are signified love and the faith derived therefrom, as has been shown before (n. 255, 256, 1025), consequently all those who are in charity and in faith in the Lord. But by the land of Canaan is signified the Lord’s kingdom; therefore to “give the land unto thy seed” signifies that the heavenly kingdom should be given as an inheritance to those who from charity have faith in Him.
[2] That these things were a consolation to the Lord after His temptations and horrors, may be seen without explication. For after those hard and adverse eventualities which the Lord had seen, that is to say, after he had put to flight evils and falsities-which were signified by the fowls that came down upon the bodies and that Abram drove away (mentioned in verse 11)-and yet after all dense falsities infused themselves, at which He shuddered (which were signified by the “terror of great darkness” that fell upon Abram in the deep sleep, spoken of in verse 12), and yet at last mere falsities and evils took possession of the human race (which are signified by “the furnace of smoke” and “the torch of fire” which passed between the pieces, mentioned in verse 17, that precedes this), the Lord could not but be in distress and grief; and therefore consolation now follows, such as was given above (verses 4 and 5); namely, that His seed should inherit the land, that is, that they who are in charity and in faith in Him should become heirs of His kingdom. To Him the salvation of the human race was the only consolation, for He was in Divine and celestial love, and became, even as to His Human Essence, the Divine and celestial Love itself, in which the love of all is alone regarded and is at heart.
[3] That the Divine love is such may be seen from the love of parents toward their children, which increases according to the degree in which it descends, that is, it becomes greater toward the more remote descendants than it is toward the immediate children. Nothing ever exists without a cause and an origin, consequently neither does this love in the human race that is characterized by a constant increase toward the descendants in succession. The cause and origin of this cannot but be from the Lord, from whom inflows all conjugial love, and that of parents toward their children, and the source of which is that His love for all is like that of a father for his sons, who desires to make all His heirs, and provides an inheritance for those who are to be born, as He does for those already born.
1866. From the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. That this signifies the extension of spiritual and celestial things-to “the river of Egypt” being the extension of spiritual things, and “to the river Euphrates” being the extension of celestial things-is evident from the signification of “the river of Egypt,” and from the signification of “the great river,” or “the Euphrates.” That these “rivers” signify the extension of spiritual and celestial things, may be seen from the signification of the land of Canaan, as being the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens and on the earth, in which there is nothing but the spiritual things which are of faith and the celestial things which are of mutual love; and therefore nothing but the extension of these can be meant by the boundaries of the land of Canaan. For what the land of Canaan is, what the river of Egypt is, and what the great river Euphrates is, and indeed what the boundaries of any land are, they who are in the heavens do not know at all; but they well know what the extension of spiritual and celestial things is, and also the determinations and the limitations of the states of these things. These things they have in mind while the others are being read by man; and so the letter vanishes and together with it that historical sense which has served as an objective form for the heavenly ideas.
[2] That “the river of Egypt” signifies the extension of spiritual things, is because “Egypt” signifies memory-knowledges [scientifica], which, together with a man’s rational and intellectual things, constitute spiritual things (as before said, n. 1443 and in other places; and that “Egypt” in the internal sense signifies memory-knowledges may be seen n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462). That “the river Euphrates” signifies the extension of celestial things, may be seen from a consideration of the lands which that river bounds and separates from the land of Canaan, and by which likewise in many passages are signified the knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones] of celestial things but here, because it is called “the river” and “the great river,” celestial things and the knowledges [cognitiones] of them are what alone are signified; for a “great river” and “greatness” are predicated of these.
1867. Verses 19, 20, 21. The Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. “The Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,” signify falsities which are to be expelled from the Lord’s kingdom; “the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,” signify persuasions of falsity; “the Amorite and the Canaanite,” signify evils; “the Girgashite and the Jebusite,” signify falsities from evils.
1868. That these things are signified by these nations it would be too tedious to confirm from the Word; and there is no need to do so here, because they are merely named. Some of them have been treated of above; the “Rephaim” as signifying the persuasions of falsity (n. 567, 581, 1673); the “Amorite” as signifying evils (n. 1680); the “Canaanite” as signifying evils (above at verse 16); the “Perizzite” as signifying falsities (n. 1574). What is the specific signification of the other nations, shall of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told in what follows, as they occur.
[2] As regards the nations which are to be expelled from the Lord’s kingdom, the case is this. In the other life the evil and diabolical spirits desire nothing more than to come up into the world of spirits and infest the good spirits, but as often as they do so they are cast out, in like manner as in a man who is being regenerated the falsities and evils which have taken possession of him are subjugated and dissipated, and the goods and truths of the Lord’s kingdom are implanted in their place.
[3] These were represented by the nations that were expelled from the land of Canaan by the sons of Jacob; and the same were represented by the Jews themselves, who were afterwards expelled from the land. The same occurred with many nations of old that represented similar things, as the Horites who were driven from Mount Seir by the descendants of Esau (spoken of in Deut. 2:12, 22); and the Avvim who were expelled by the Caphtorim (mentioned in Deut. 2:23); also the Emim or Rephaim who were driven out by the Moabites (spoken of in Deut. 2:9-11); and also the Zamzummim who were expelled by the Ammonites (mentioned in Deut. 2:19-21); besides many others spoken of in the Prophets.
1869. CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OR WORD
How many things there are in a single word of the Word has been shown me by the opening of the ideas of thought. It is a remarkable fact that in the other life this can be done so to the very life that the ideas themselves appear visible in form, and thus like pictured images. One who during his life in this world had lived in charity or mutual love, and had taken great delight in the Word, had his ideas thus opened. There then appeared beautiful things beyond number, together with delicious and delightful things of an affecting nature, and it was said that the things which thus appear visible can be opened again as to their interiors, and that when these have been opened things still more beautiful and delightful are presented that are attended with happiness itself. Such are all angelic ideas, for they are open from the Lord Himself. [2] To spirits who wondered that ideas of thought could be so opened in the other life, this was illustrated by taking the case of the sight of the eye, the rays of vision of which are so dull and obscure that the smaller things in nature (which contain things innumerable) they see only as something opaque, black, and shapeless; but when the same objects are viewed through a microscope, things more interior are presented to view, connected in beautiful series and flowing in delightful order; and it is seen that these might in like manner be opened still more by a more powerful microscope. In this way such spirits have been shown how the case is with the internal sight, the rays of which are nothing but ideas, in that in themselves these ideas are so gross that anything more gross can scarcely exist in that sphere, although men think differently. But concerning ideas, of the Lord’s Divine mercy hereafter.
1870. The case is similar with the Word of the Lord; each of its words presents in form its own idea, for a word is nothing but an idea so presented in form that the sense may be perceived; and in the ideas are things so innumerable, and which cannot come to man’s perception, but only to that of angels, that it can never be believed. And when these are opened by the Lord, more internal forms are presented to the perception by delightful and happy things, and to the sight by representative and paradisal things; the former from the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord’s love or mercy, and the latter from the rays of light thence derived.
[2] It has been shown me by wonderful experience that the Word has been inspired not only as to each of its words, but also as to the little letters of each word, and thus exactly as is said, as to the smallest jot; for in every jot there is something from that affection and life which is common to the whole expression, and which therefore has been insinuated in a correspondent manner into its smallest particulars. But this can by no means be explained to the understanding without a previous knowledge of many other things.
1871. How the Word of the Lord appears before the angels cannot be described, but some idea can be formed by those who have seen in museums the optical cylinders in which beautiful images are represented from things roughly projected. Although the things which are round about in the projection appear to have no form, series, or order, and to be merely confused projections, still when they are concentrated toward the cylinder, they there present a lovely image. So it is with the Word of the Lord, especially with the prophetic Word of the Old Testament. In the literal sense there is scarcely anything that does not appear destitute of order, but when it is being read by a man, and especially by a little boy or girl, it becomes more beautiful and delightful by degrees as it ascends, and at last it is presented before the Lord as the image of a human being, in which and by which heaven is represented in its whole complex, not as it is, but as the Lord wills it to be, namely, a likeness of Himself.
1872. There appeared to me a beautiful girl with a radiant face, passing quickly upward toward the right, and making some haste. In age she seemed to be in the first bloom-not a child nor yet a young woman-becomingly clothed with a dress of shining black; so she was hastening on with gladness from light to light. It was said that the interiors of the Word are such in their first ascent; the black dress was the Word in the letter. Afterwards the young girl flew to my right cheek, but was perceivable only by the interior sight. It was said that such are the things from the internal sense of the Word which do not come to the comprehension.
1873. Spirits spoke respecting the internal sense of the Word; and in order that the nature of it might be presented to the understanding, it was illustrated by the example, What is the fruit of faith? And it was said that good works are the fruit of faith in the external sense or that of the letter, but that these good works have no life unless they proceed from charity; and that thus the fruit of faith in the proximate interior sense is charity. But as charity or love toward the neighbor ought to proceed from love to the Lord, this love is the fruit of faith in the internal sense; and as all love is from the Lord, it is the Lord Himself. For thus in the good work is charity; in charity is love to the Lord; and in love to the Lord is the Lord Himself.
1874. In conversation with good spirits, I said that in the Word many things, even more than one can believe, are said according to appearances and according to the fallacies of the senses, as that Jehovah is in anger, wrath, and fury against the wicked; that He takes pleasure in bringing them to ruin and destruction, and even that He kills them. But these things have been said in order that persuasions and cupidities might not be broken, but that they might be bent; for to speak otherwise than as man apprehends (that is, from appearances, fallacies, and persuasions) would have been to sow seed in the waters, and to say that which would be at once rejected. Nevertheless such forms of speech are able to serve as general vessels in which spiritual and celestial things may be contained, for into them it may be insinuated that all things are from the Lord; then that the Lord permits, but that evil is wholly from diabolical spirits; afterwards that the Lord provides and disposes that evils should be turned into goods; and at last that nothing but good is from the Lord. Thus the sense of the letter perishes as it ascends and becomes spiritual, then celestial, and at last Divine.
1875. It was granted me to have a perception of angelic ideas about these words in the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Temptation and evil were rejected by the nearest good spirits, by a certain idea perceptible within me, and this even until what is purely angelic, namely, Good,, remained, without any idea of temptation and evil; the literal sense thus perishing altogether. In the first rejection innumerable ideas were being formed respecting this Good-how good may come from man’s affliction while the affliction still is from the man and his evil, in which there is punishment, and this with a kind of indignation joined with it that it should be thought that temptation and its evil come from any other source, and that anyone should have any thought of evil in thinking of the Lord. These ideas were purified in the degree of their ascent. The ascents were represented by rejections (spoken of also n. 1393), which were made with a rapidity and in a manner that were inexpressible, until they passed into the shade of my thought. They were then in heaven, where there are only ineffable angelic ideas concerning the Lord’s good.
1876. The names of men, of kingdoms, and of cities, that occur in the Word, like the words of human speech, perish at the very threshold of the ascent; for these are earthly, corporeal, and material; and the souls that come into the other life successively put these things off, and those who come into heaven do so altogether. The angels retain not even the least of an idea of any person, nor consequently of his name. What Abram is, what Isaac, and Jacob, they no longer know. They form an idea for themselves from the things which are represented and signified by them in the Word. Names and words are to them like dust, or like scales, which fall off when they enter heaven. Hence it may be seen that by the names in the Word nothing is signified except actual things. I have frequently spoken with angels about these matters, and have been fully instructed by them concerning the truth. The speech of spirits with one another is not a speech of words, but of ideas, such as are those of human thought without words, on which account it is the universal of all languages. But when they speak with a man, their speech falls into the words of the man’s language (as before said, n. 1635, 1637, 1639).
[2] When I have spoken with spirits about this, it has been given me to say that when they are conversing with one another, they cannot utter even one single word of human language, still less any name. Some of them, wondering at this, retired and tried; but returning they said that they were not able to pronounce them because the words were so grossly material that they were below their sphere, as they were formed from the sound of air, made articulate by the bodily organs, or by influx into such organs by an internal way leading to the organ of hearing. From this it may likewise be clearly seen that no part of a word that is in the Word can pass to spirits, still less to angelic spirits, whose speech is still more universal (see n. 1642), and least of all to the angels (see n. 1643), with whom remains nothing of the first ideas of spirits, but in place of them spiritual truths and celestial goods, which are varied in an ineffable manner in the least forms, continued and connected in a unanimous series, with the originaries of representatives that are most pleasant and beautiful from the happiness of mutual love, and that are happy from pleasantnesses and beauties, because they are inspired with the life of the Lord.
1877. The souls or spirits who are in the world of spirits, especially the wicked, retain at first the things which they had in their life of the body, that is, things earthly, corporeal, and worldly, and with them the principles which they had taken up. Among these spirits are those who are not willing to hear anything concerning the internal sense of the Word, but only concerning the literal sense, which they carry so far as to believe that the twelve apostles are to sit upon twelve thrones and to judge the twelve tribes of Israel; and also that none but the poor, the miserable, and they that have suffered persecutions can enter into heaven; when yet both the rich and the powerful who have lived in charity and in faith in the Lord are there. As such persons claim heaven for themselves on account of their merits, I have seen them running hither and thither, and wherever they went they derided the things which are of the internal sense of the Word, for the reason that these are contrary to their persuasions and cupidities, in that they desire to merit heaven and to be preferred before all others. But they are like the corrupt and noxious things that flow into the blood, and pervade the veins and arteries, and pollute the mass of the blood.
1878. There are also those who in the life of the body had despised the Word; and there are those who had abused the things that are in the Word to give point to a joke. There are those who had supposed that the Word was of no account, but that it might serve to keep the common people in some restraint. There are those who had blasphemed the Word; and there are those who had profaned it. The lot in the other life of all these persons is miserable, in accordance with the quality and degree of their contempt, derision, blasphemy, and profanation. For, as before said, the Word is so holy in the heavens that it is itself as it were heaven to those who are there; and as there exists there a communion of the thoughts of all, such spirits cannot possibly be with them, but are separated.
1879. On one occasion while in bed I was told that evil spirits were conspiring against me with the intention of suffocating me, but as I was safe and felt secure under the Lord’s keeping, I disregarded the threats and went to sleep. But awaking in the middle of the night, I felt that I was not breathing of myself, but from heaven, for there was nothing of my own respiration, as I plainly perceived. It was then said that the band of conspirators was present, and that it was composed of those who hold in hatred the interior things of the Word (that is, the very truths of faith, for these are the interiors of the Word), and who thus hate them because they are contrary to their fallacies, persuasions, and cupidities, which the sense of the letter might be brought to support.
[2] After their attempt had failed, their leaders tried to enter into the viscera of my body, and to penetrate even to the heart, and to this also they were admitted. This was all the time perceived by manifest sensation, for one to whom the interiors of the spirit are opened, gets at the same time a sensible perception of such things. But I was then introduced into a kind of celestial state, which was that I made no effort to repel these visitors, still less to avenge the injury. They then said that there was peace; but soon they were as if deprived of rationality, breathing out vengeance, and striving to carry out their purpose, but in vain. They afterwards dispersed of themselves.
1880. As regards spirits and angels in general, who all are human souls living after the death of the body, I may say here that they have much more exquisite senses than men-that is, sight, hearing, smell, and touch-but not taste. Spirits however are not able, and angels are still less able, to see anything that is in the world by their own sight, that is, by the sight of the spirit; for the light of the world or of the sun is to them as thick darkness; just in the same way as man by his sight, that is, by the sight of the body, cannot see anything that is in the other life; for the light of heaven, or the Lord’s heavenly light, is to man as thick darkness.
[2] But still when the Lord pleases, spirits and angels can see the things in this world through the eyes of a man. But the Lord does not grant this except in the case of one whom He enables to speak with spirits and angels, and to be together with them. Spirits and angels have been permitted to see the things in this world through my eyes as plainly as I could see them myself, and also to hear men talking with me. It has sometimes happened that to their great astonishment, some through me have seen their friends whom they had had in the life of the body, just as they had seen them before. Some have also seen their married partners, and their children, and have desired me to tell them that they were close by and saw them, and to give an account of their state in the other life, but I had been forbidden to tell them or reveal to them that they were seen in this way, and this partly for the reason that they would have called me insane, or would have thought such things to be delirious fancies of the mind; for I was well aware that although they would acknowledge it with the lips, they did not believe in heart in the existence of spirits, or that the dead are risen.
[3] When my interior sight was first opened, and through my eyes spirits and angels saw the world and the things that are in it, they were so amazed that they called it the miracle of miracles; and they were affected with a new joy, in that in this way communication was opened of earth with heaven, and of heaven with earth. This delight lasted for months, but afterwards it became familiar, and now they do not wonder at all. I have been instructed that the spirits and angels who are present with other men do not in the slightest degree see the things of this world, but only perceive the thoughts and affections of those with whom they are.
[4] These things have shown that man was so created that while living on earth among men, he might at the same time also live in heaven among angels, and the converse; so that heaven and earth might be together, and might act as a one, and that men might know what is going on in heaven, and angels what in the world; and therefore that when men depart this life they would pass from the Lord’s kingdom on earth into the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, not as into another kingdom, but as into the same as that in which they had been when living in the body. But in consequence of man’s becoming so corporeal, he has closed heaven against himself.
1881. Spirits are exceedingly indignant, indeed are angry, when told that men do not believe that they see, that they hear, that they feel by the touch. They have said that surely men ought to know that without sense there is no life, and that the more exquisite the sense the more excellent the life; also that the objects of their sense are suited to the excellence of their senses, and that the representatives which are from the Lord are real, for all the things that are in nature and the world are derived from them (see n. 1632). The words in which they express their indignation are that they perceive by the senses much better and more excellently than men do.
1882. There are two kinds of visions that are not of the ordinary kind, into which I have been let solely that I might know their nature, and what is meant by its being said in the Word that men were “withdrawn from the body,” and that they were “carried by the spirit into another place.”
1883. As regards the first, namely, being withdrawn from the body, the case is this. The man is brought into a certain state that is midway between sleep and wakefulness, and when he is in this state he cannot know but that he is wholly awake. All his senses are as fully awake as in the highest wakefulness of the body; the sight, the hearing, and, wonderful to say, the touch, which is then more exquisite than it can ever be in the wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and angels have been seen to the very life, and also heard, and, wonderful to say, have been touched, and almost nothing of the body then intervened. This is the state of which it is said that they are “withdrawn from the body,” and that they “do not know whether they are in the body or out of it.”* I have been let into this state only three or four times, merely that I might know how the case is with it, and that spirits and angels are in the enjoyment of every sense, even touch in a form more delicate and more exquisite than that of the body.
* See 2 Cor. 12:3.
1884. As regards the other kind of vision-being carried away by the spirit into another place-it has been shown me by living experience what it is, and how it is done, but only two or three times. One single experience I may mention. Walking through the streets of a city and through the country, and being at the same time also in conversation with spirits, I did not know but that I was wide awake and saw as at other times, so that I walked on without mistake, and all the time being in vision, seeing groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men, and many other things. But after I had thus walked for hours, suddenly I was in the sight of the body, and became aware that I was in another place. Greatly amazed at this, I perceived that I had been in such a state as they were in of whom it is said that they were “led away by the spirit into another place;”* for while this state lasts there is no reflection concerning the way, even if it be many miles; nor is there reflection concerning the time, even if it be many hours or days; nor is there any feeling of fatigue. Moreover the person is led through ways of which he has no knowledge, even to the appointed place. This took place that I might know that a man can be led by the Lord without his knowing whence and whither.
* See 1 Kings 18:12; 19:8; Ezek. 3:12, 14; Acts 8:39.
1885. These two kinds of visions, however, are extraordinary, and were shown me merely to the end that I might know their nature. But the things I have habitually “seen” [as mentioned in the title to this work] are all those which of the Lord’s Divine mercy you may see related in this First Part, and which are placed at the beginning and end of the several chapters. These are not visions, but things seen in the highest wakefulness of the body, and this for several years.*
Preface
[to Volume 2 of the Original Latin]
In the First Part of this work fifteen chapters of Genesis have been explained, and the things contained in the internal sense have been stated; and to each chapter there have been added things that of the Lord’s Divine mercy I have been permitted to see and hear in the world of spirits and in the heaven of angels. The Second Part** now follows, and in this likewise similar things will be added to the several chapters. To this sixteenth chapter will be appended such as relate to Visions and Dreams, including those of a prophetical character found in the Word. I know that few will believe that anyone can see things that exist in the other life, and bring therefrom any report respecting the state of souls after death, for few believe in the resurrection, and fewer of the learned do so than of the simple. With the lips indeed they say that they will rise again, because so to speak is according to the doctrine of their faith, but still they deny it in heart.
[2] Some go so far as to say openly that if anyone were to rise from the dead and they were to see, hear, and touch him, then they would believe. But if this were done, it would have to be done for each individual, and still no such person as denies in heart would be persuaded by it, for thousands of objections would flow in that would harden his heart in denial. Some however say that they believe that they will rise, but on the day of the last judgment; and respecting this they have formed the opinion that all things in the visible world will then perish, and because that day has been expected in vain for so many centuries they too are in doubt. But what is meant by the last judgment spoken of in the Word shall of the Lord’s Divine mercy be briefly told at the end of the seventeenth chapter.
[3] From this we may see what kind of people there are in the Christian world at this day. The Sadducees (of whom we read in Matt. 22:23, etc.) openly denied the resurrection, but did better than those at the present day who say they do not deny it because it is according to the doctrine of faith, as said above, and yet do deny in heart; so that they say what is contrary to what they believe, and believe what is contrary to what they say. But lest they should confirm themselves further in this false opinion, of the Lord’s Divine mercy I have been permitted, while still in the body in this world, to be in the spirit in the other life (for a man is a spirit clothed with a body), and to speak there with souls who had risen not long after their death, in fact with nearly all with whom I have been acquainted in the life of the body, and who have died. For some years also I have been permitted to speak with spirits and angels every day, and to see amazing things there, which have never come into anyone’s idea, and this without any fallacious appearance.
[4] As very many say that they will believe if anyone comes to them from the other life, it will now be seen whether they will be persuaded against the hardness of their hearts. This I can aver, that they who come into the other life from the Christian world are the worst of all, hating the neighbor, hating faith, and denying the Lord (for in the other life hearts speak, not mouths), besides the fact that above all others are they addicted to adultery. And because heaven is thus beginning to be removed from those who are within the church, we can see that its last time is at hand; the truth of which I have been permitted to know with certainty.
Concerning the internal sense of the Word, what it is, and what is its nature, see what has been said and shown in Part First n. 1-5, 64-66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 at the end, 1540, 1659, 1756, especially 1767-1777 and 1869-1879, 1783, 1807; and in this Part, n. 1886-1889 inclusive.
* The first “Part” or volume of the original Latin work, in quarto, published in London in 1749, ends here, and the second “Part” follows.
** Published in London in 1750.
1886. CHAPTER 16
This chapter treats of Hagar and Ishmael. But what is represented and signified in the internal sense by Hagar and Ishmael has not hitherto been known to anyone, nor could be, because the world, even the learned world, has hitherto supposed the histories of the Word to be nothing but histories, and to involve nothing deeper. And although they have said that every iota is Divinely inspired, they have meant nothing further than that the historical facts have been disclosed, and that something of a doctrinal nature that could be applied to the doctrine of faith may be deduced from them and be of use to both teachers and learners; and that because these have been Divinely inspired they have Divine power in the mind, and work for good above all other history. Regarded in themselves, however, historical matters effect but little toward man’s amendment, and nothing at all for his eternal life, since in the other life they are forgotten. For what would it amount to there to know respecting the maid Hagar that she was given by Sarai to Abram? Or to know about Ishmael, or even about Abram? Nothing but what belongs to the Lord and is from the Lord is necessary to souls in order that they may enter into heaven and enjoy its happiness, that is, eternal life. It is for the sake of these things that the Word exists, and these are the things that are contained in its interiors.
1887. Inspiration implies that in every particular of the Word (as well in the historicals as in the other parts) there are celestial things which are of love or good, and spiritual things which are of faith or truth, thus Divine things. For that which is inspired by the Lord descends from Him, and does so through the angelic heaven, and so through the world of spirits down to man, with whom it is presented such as it is in the letter; but in its first origin it is altogether different. In heaven there is never any worldly history, but all is representative of Divine things, and there is no perception there of anything else, as may also be known from the fact that the things which are there are unutterable. Unless therefore the historicals were representative of Divine things, and in this way were heavenly, they could not possibly be Divinely inspired. The Word as it exists in the heavens can be known solely from the internal sense, for the internal sense is the Word of the Lord in the heavens.
1888. That the sense of the letter of the Word is representative of Divine arcana, and that it is the receptacle and thus the repository of the Lord’s celestial and spiritual things, may be illustrated by two examples: first, that by “David” is not meant David, but the Lord; second, that the names signify nothing but actual things, and therefore it must be the same with all the rest of the Word. Concerning David it is said in Ezekiel:
My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall dwell upon the land, they and their sons and their sons’ sons, even to eternity; and David my servant shall be their prince to eternity (Ezek. 37:24-25).
And in Hosea:
The sons of Israel shall return, and shall seek Jehovah their God, and David their king (Hos. 3:5).
These things were written by the prophets after the time of David, and yet it is plainly said that he shall be their king and prince, from which all may see that in the internal sense it is the Lord who is meant by “David.” And the case is the same in all other passages, even those which are historical, where David is named.
[2] That the names of kingdoms, regions, cities, and men, signify actual things, may be clearly seen in the Prophets. Take merely this example in Isaiah:
Thus said the Lord, Jehovih Zebaoth, O My people, thou inhabitant of Zion, be not afraid of Asshur; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff upon thee in the way of Egypt. Jehovah of Armies shall stir up a scourge for him according to the plague of Midian at the rock of Horeb; and as His rod was upon the sea, so shall He lift it up in the way of Egypt. He shall come against Aiath, He shall pass over to Migron, at Michmash shall He command His arms; they* shall pass over Mabarah; Geba* is a lodging-place for us; Ramah* shall tremble; Gibeah of Saul shall flee; cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; hearken, O Laish; O thou poor Anathoth; Madmenah shall wander; the inhabitants of Gebim shall gather themselves together; as yet there is a day for a stand at Nob; the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, shall shake her hand; He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a magnificent one (Isa. 10:24, 26-34).
[3] Here there is almost nothing but names, from which no sense would appear unless all the names signified actual things; and if the mind were to abide in the names, this would never be acknowledged to be the Word of the Lord. But who will believe that in the internal sense they all contain arcana of heaven? and that by them is described the state of those who are endeavoring to enter into the mysteries of faith by reasonings from memory-knowledges? Some special thing belonging to that state are described by each name; and that the meaning is that these reasonings are dispersed by the Lord by means of the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith. That the reasoning here treated of is signified by “Asshur,” may be clearly seen from what has been already shown concerning Asshur (n. 119, 1186); also that memory-knowledges are signified by “Egypt” (n. 1164, 1165, 1462); which see and examine. The case is the same with all other names, and also with all the several words.
* The Latin had transibit, Gibea, Chormah: but in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture, n. 15, we find transibunt, Geba, and Ramah, like the Hebrew. [Rotch. ed.]
1889. In this chapter it is the same with the names Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael; and what they involve may be seen from the CONTENTS, and further on from the explication of each name in its place. But these matters are of a nature that does not admit of easy explication, for the subject treated of in connection with these names is the Lord’s rational, and how it was conceived and born, and what its quality was before it was united to the Lord’s Internal, which was Jehovah. The reason why this subject is not of easy explication, is that at this day it is not known what the internal man is, what the interior, and what the exterior. When the rational is spoken of, or the rational man, some idea can be formed of it; but when it is said that the rational is the intermediate between the internal and the external, few if any comprehend it. Yet as the subject here treated of in the internal sense is the Lord’s Rational Man, and how it was conceived and born by the influx of the internal man into the external, and as it is these very matters that are involved in the historical facts stated concerning Abram, Hagar, and Ishmael, therefore in order to prevent what we have to say in the following explication from being utterly unintelligible, be it known that in every man there is an internal man, a rational man which is intermediate, and an external man, and that these are most distinct from one another. (Concerning this subject see what was said above, n. 978.)
GENESIS 16
1. And Sarai, Abram’s wife, did not bear unto him; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, and her name was Hagar.
2. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold I pray, Jehovah hath shut me up from bearing; go in I pray unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be built up by her. And Abram harkened to the voice of Sarai.
3. And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after ten years of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram, her man, for a woman to him.
4. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes.
5. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee; I gave my handmaid unto thy bosom; and she saw that she conceived, and I am despised in her eyes; Jehovah judge between me and thee.
6. And Abram said unto Sarai, Behold thy handmaid is in thy hand, do to her that which is good in thine eyes; and Sarai humbled her, and she fled from her face.
7. And the Angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of waters in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
8. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? And she said, From the face of Sarai, my mistress, am I fleeing.
9. And the Angel of Jehovah said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hands.
10. And the Angel of Jehovah said unto her, In multiplying I will multiply thy seed, and it shall not be numbered for multitude.
11. And the Angel of Jehovah said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Ishmael; because Jehovah hath heard thine affliction.
12. And he will be a wild-ass man; his hand against all, and the hand of all against him and he shall dwell against the faces of all his brethren.
13. And she called the name of Jehovah that was speaking unto her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also here seen after Him that seeth me?
14. Therefore she called the fountain, The fountain of the Living One who seeth me; behold it is between Kadesh and Bared.
15. And Hagar bare Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son that Hagar bare, Ishmael.
16. And Abram was a son of eighty years and six years, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
1890. THE CONTENTS
The subject treated of in this chapter is the Lord’s first rational, which was conceived by the influx of the internal man into the affection of memory-knowledges [scientiae] of the external. The internal man is “Abram;” the affection of memory-knowledges in the external is “Hagar the Egyptian handmaid;” the rational thence derived is “Ishmael.” The nature of this rational is here described; and it is afterwards said (chapter 21) that it was expelled from the house, after the Lord’s Divine rational, represented by Isaac, had been born.
1891. The Lord’s first rational was conceived according to order by the influx or conjunction of the internal man with the life of the affection of memory-knowledges belonging to the external (verses 1-3). But as this affection was of the external man, its nature was such that it held intellectual truth in low esteem (verse 4). On which account the Lord thought concerning the subjugation of it (verses 5-9), and that when subjugated, it would become spiritual and celestial (verses 10, 11). What it would be if not subjugated, is described (verse 12); the Lord’s insight into the cause from His interior man (verses 13, 14). The rational is thus described in respect to its quality; also the Lord’s state when it originated (verses 15, 16).
1892. THE INTERNAL SENSE
Verse 1. And Sarai, Abram’s wife, did not bear unto him; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, and her name was Hagar. “Sarai, Abram’s wife, did not bear unto him,” signifies that as yet there was no rational man; “Sarai” is truth adjoined to good; “Abram” is the Lord’s internal man, which was Jehovah. “And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,” signifies the affection of memory-knowledges; “and her name was Hagar,” signifies the life of the exterior or natural man.
1893. Sarai, Abram’s wife, did not bear unto him. That this signifies that the rational man was not yet, will be evident from what follows, where Isaac is treated of. For, as has been said, there are in every man an internal man, a rational man that is intermediate, and an external, which is properly called the natural man. With the Lord these were represented by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the internal man by Abraham, the rational by Isaac, and the natural by Jacob. The internal man in the Lord was Jehovah Himself, for He was conceived of Jehovah; on this account He so often called Him His “Father,” and in the Word He is called the “Only-begotten of God,” and the only “Son of God.” The rational man is not born with man, but only the capacity for becoming rational, as all may see from the fact that new-born infants are not endowed with any reason, but become rational in process of time by means of things of sense external and internal, as they are imbued with knowledges [scientiae et cognitiones]. In children indeed there is an appearance of rationality, yet it is not rationality, but is only a kind of rudiment of it, which is known from the fact that reason belongs to adults and men of years.
[2] The rational man in the Lord is treated of in this chapter. The Divine Rational itself is represented by Isaac; but the first rational before it was made Divine, by Ishmael; and therefore that “Sarai, Abram’s wife, did not bear unto him” here signifies that hitherto there was no Divine rational. As before said, the Lord was born as are other men, and as regards all that He drew from Mary the mother He was like other men; and as the rational is formed by means of knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones], which enter through things of the external senses, or those of the external man, therefore His first rational was born as with any other man; but as by His own power He made Divine all the human things that appertained to Him, so did He also make the rational Divine. His first rational is described in this chapter, and also in chapter 21, where Hagar and Ishmael are likewise treated of (from verses 9 to 21), and it is said that Ishmael was expelled when Isaac grew up, by whom is represented the Divine rational.
1894. That Sarai is truth adjoined to good, has been said and shown before (n. 1468 and elsewhere), as also that Abram is the Lord’s internal man, which is Jehovah. The Lord’s internal man, which is Jehovah, is called Man, because no one is man except Jehovah alone; for man, in the genuine sense, signifies that Esse from which man is. The Esse itself from which man is, is the Divine, consequently the celestial and the spiritual. Without the Divine celestial and spiritual, there is nothing human in man, but only a sort of animal nature, such as there is in beasts. It is from the Esse of Jehovah, or of the Lord, that every man is man; and from this also he is called man. The celestial which makes the man is that he loves the Lord and loves the neighbor; in this way is he man, because he is an image of the Lord, and because he has this from the Lord; otherwise he is a wild beast.
[2] That Jehovah or the Lord is the only Man, and that men have it from Him that they are called men, also that one is more man than another, may be seen above (n. 49, 288, 477, 565); and the same may also be seen from the fact that Jehovah, or the Lord, appeared as Man to the fathers of the Most Ancient Church, and afterwards also to Abraham and to the prophets; and on this account also the Lord, after there was no man any longer on the earth, or no longer anything celestial and spiritual among men, deigned to assume the human nature by being born as are other men, and to make that nature Divine; and in this way also He is the only Man. Besides, the universal heaven presents before the Lord the image of a man, because it presents Himself. From this, heaven is called the Grand Man, and this especially from the fact that the Lord there is all in all.
1895. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian. That this signifies the affection of memory-knowledges [scientiae], is evident from the signification of a “handmaid,” and from the signification of “Egypt.” Sarai, who was the mistress or lady, represents and signifies truth adjoined to good, as already said. Truth adjoined to good is intellectual truth in the genuine sense, but rational truth is beneath this and therefore is lower; and this rational truth is born from knowledges [scientiae et cognitiones] vivified by the affection that corresponds to them, and this affection, being of the exterior man, ought to serve the intellectual truth that appertains to the inmost man, as a handmaid serves her lady, or a household servant her mistress; and therefore this affection is what is represented and signified by the “handmaid Hagar.”
[2] How these things stand cannot well be stated to the apprehension, for it must first be known what intellectual truth in the genuine sense is, and also how the rational is born, namely, from the internal man as a father, and from the exterior or natural man as a mother, for without the conjunction of these two nothing rational can possibly come forth. The rational is not born (as is supposed) of knowledges [scientiae et cognitiones], but of the affection of these knowledges, as may be seen from the mere fact that no one can ever become rational unless some delight or affection of these knowledges aspires thereto. The affection is the maternal life itself; and the celestial and spiritual itself, in the affection, is the paternal life; therefore in proportion to the affection, and in accordance with the quality of the affection, in the same proportion, and in the same quality, does the man become rational. In themselves these knowledges are nothing but dead things, or instrumental causes, which are vivified by the life of affection; and such is the conception of the rational man in everyone. The reason why the handmaid was an Egyptian, and the reason why this fact is stated, is that “Egypt” signifies memory-knowledges [scientiae], as before shown (n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462).
1896. And her name was Hagar. That this signifies the life of the exterior or natural man, may be seen from what has been said, and also from the meaning of “Hagar,” which is “a stranger” or “sojourner.” Strangers represented those who were to be instructed, and sojourning represented instruction and also principles of life [vitae instituta], as shown above (n. 1463). When anyone’s name is stated in the Word, as here that “her name was Hagar,” it signifies that something is involved in the name to which attention should be given, for to “call by name” means to know a person’s quality (as before shown, n. 144, 145, 340). No syllable in the Word is there without a cause, or without a signification in the internal sense of some actual thing.
1897. Verse 2. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold I pray, Jehovah hath shut me up from bearing; go in I pray unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be built up by her; and Abram harkened to the voice of Sarai. “Sarai said unto Abram,” signifies that it was so perceived; “Behold I pray, Jehovah hath shut me up from bearing,” signifies the state before the interior or Divine rational man was born; “go in I pray unto my handmaid,” signifies conjunction with the exterior man; “it may be that I shall be built up by her,” signifies that in this way the rational could be born. “And Abram harkened to the voice of Sarai,” signifies that it could not be done in any other way.
1898. Sarai said unto Abram. That this signifies that it was so perceived, is evident from the signification of “Sarai” and of “Abram,” namely, that “Sarai” is truth adjoined to good, and “Abram” is the internal man; and therefore that “Sarai said to Abram,” in the internal sense cannot signify any conversation, but perception. The Lord’s perception at that time was from truth adjoined to good, which dictated to Him how the case was. There is something similar with a celestial man who receives perception; for there is something of truth adjoined to good which dictates; afterwards there is good from which or through which the truth is perceived. (That “to say,” in the internal sense, signifies to perceive, may be seen above, n. 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822.)
1899. Behold I pray, Jehovah hath shut me up from bearing. That this signifies the state before the interior or Divine rational man was born, is evident from what has been already said about the conception and birth of the rational man, namely, that the Lord’s Divine rational man is represented by Isaac, but His first rational man, which was to become Divine, by Ishmael. In order that these things might be represented, Sarai remained so long barren, even until Ishmael had become a lad (spoken of in Genesis 21); on which account it is here said that “Jehovah shut her up from bearing.”
1900. Go in I pray unto my handmaid. That this signifies conjunction with the exterior man, is also evident from what has been said before, namely, that man’s rational is conceived and born of the internal man as a father, and of the exterior man as a mother. Man’s very life is from the internal man, which cannot have communication with the external, except a most obscure communication, until the receiving vessels that are of the memory have been formed, which is effected by means of knowledges [cognitiones et scientiae].
[2] The influx of the internal man goes into the knowledges of the exterior man; affection being the means. Meanwhile, before there are these knowledges, there is indeed a communication, but through affections alone, by which the external man is governed; but from this there exist only the most general motions, and certain appetites, also certain blind inclinations, such as show themselves in infants. But this life becomes by degrees more distinct in proportion as the vessels of the memory are formed by means of knowledges, and the vessels of the interior memory by means of rational things. As these vessels are formed, and are arranged in series-and indeed in such series that they mutually regard each other, comparatively like relationships by blood and by marriage, or like societies and families-thereby is perfected the correspondence of the external man with the internal, and still better is this done by means of rational things, which are intermediate.
[3] But still there is a want of congruity unless the knowledges by which the vessels are formed are truths; for the celestial and spiritual things of the internal man find no correspondence for themselves except in truths. These are the genuine vessels in the organic forms of each memory, and to which the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith can be fitted in; for they are there arranged by the Lord according to the idea and image of the societies of heaven, or of His kingdom, insomuch that the man becomes, in least form, a heaven, or a kingdom of the Lord, as also the minds of those who are in the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith are called in the Word. But these things have been said for those who love to think more deeply.
1901. It may be that I shall be built up by her. That this signifies that in this way the rational could be born, may be seen from the signification of being “built up,” when predicated of generation, and thus without explication. By “Sarai,” as has been said, is signified intellectual truth which has been adjoined as a wife to good. Intellectual truth, which appertains to the inmost, is altogether barren, or like a childless mother, when as yet there is not any rational into which and through which it may inflow; for without the rational as a medium intellectual truth cannot inflow with any truth into the exterior man, as may be seen from the case of little children, who can know nothing whatever of truth until they have been imbued with knowledges; but, as before said, the better and more perfectly they are imbued with knowledges, so much the better and more perfectly can intellectual truth which appertains to the inmost, or to good, be communicated.
[2] This intellectual truth, represented by Sarai, is the spiritual itself which flows in through heaven, and this by an internal way, and with every man; and it continually meets the knowledges that are insinuated by means of the things of sense, and are implanted in the memory. Man is not aware of this intellectual truth because it is too pure to be perceived by a general idea. It is like a kind of light that illuminates the mind, and confers the faculty of knowing, thinking, and understanding. As the rational cannot come into existence except by means of the influx of the intellectual truth represented by Sarai, it stands related to this truth as a son. When the rational is being formed from truths that have been adjoined to good, and still more when it is being formed from the goods from which are truths, it is then a genuine son. Before this it is indeed acknowledged as a son, yet not as a genuine son, but as coming from a handmaid; and still it is adopted, which is the reason why it is here said that she might be built up by her.
1902. And Abram harkened to the voice of Sarai. That this signifies that it could not be done in any other way, may be seen from the connection in the internal sense, and from the necessity that exists for the rational to be born in this way. If man were imbued with no hereditary evil, the rational would then be born immediately, from the marriage of the celestial things of the internal man with its spiritual things, and the faculty of knowing would be born through the rational, so that on coming into the world a man would at once have in himself all the faculty of reason and of knowing, for this would be in accordance with the order of influx, as may be inferred from the fact that all animals whatever are born into all the faculty of knowing that is necessary and helpful in securing food, safety, habitation, and procreation, because their nature is in accordance with order. Why then is man not born into it, except for the reason that order has been destroyed in him, for he alone is born into no knowledge?
[2] The cause of his being so born is evil inherited from his father and mother. By reason of this all his faculties are turned in a contrary direction in regard to truths and goods, and therefore cannot be reduced into correspondent forms by the immediate influx of what is celestial and spiritual from the Lord. This is the reason why man’s rational must be formed by an altogether different process, that is, in a different way, namely, by means of knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones] introduced through the senses, thus flowing in by an external way, and so in inverted order. Man is thus made rational by the Lord in a miraculous manner. This is meant by “going in unto the handmaid,” by which is signified the conjunction of the internal man with the exterior man; and also by “Abram’s hearkening to the voice of Sarai,” which signifies that it could not be done in any other way.
[3] The Lord, being born as are other men, and because He had a nature inherited from the mother, was like other men also in respect to the miraculous formation of the rational by means of knowledges, to the end that by combats of temptations and by victories He might reduce all things into order. Therefore was His rational conceived and born in the same way as with other men, but with the difference that inmostly in all things that were His, in both general and particular, there was the Divine, or Jehovah, and thus the life of love toward the whole human race, for whom and for whose salvation He fought in all His temptations.
1903. Verse 3. And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after ten years of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram, her man, for a woman to him. “Sarai, Abram’s wife, took,” signifies the affection of truth, which in the genuine sense is “Sarai the wife;” “Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid,” signifies the life of the exterior man, and the affection of memory-knowledges; “after ten years of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan,” signifies the remains of good and of the derivative truth which the Lord procured to Himself, and by means of which that rational was conceived; “and gave her to Abram, her man, for a woman to him,” signifies conjunction through the incitation of the affection of truth.
1904. Sarai, Abram’s wife, took. That this signifies the affection of truth, which in the genuine sense is “Sarai the wife,” is evident from the signification of “Sarai,” as being truth adjoined to good, and from the signification of a “wife,” as being affection (explained above, n. 915, 1468). There are two affections distinct from each other,-affection of good, and affection of truth. When a man is being regenerated the affection of truth has the lead, for he is affected with truth for the sake of good; but when he has been regenerated the affection of good has the lead, and from good he is affected with truth. The affection of good is of the will; the affection of truth is of the understanding. Between these two affections the most ancient people instituted as it were a marriage. Good, or the love of good, they called man as a husband; truth, or the love of truth, they called man as a wife. The comparison of good and truth with marriage has its origin in the heavenly marriage.
[2] Regarded in themselves, good and truth have no life, but they derive their life from love or affection. They are only instrumentalities of life; and such as is the love that affects the good and truth, such is the life; for the whole of life is of love, or affection. Hence it is that “Sarai the wife,” in the genuine sense, signifies the affection of truth. And because in the case before us the intellectual desired the rational as an offspring, and because that which she speaks is of this desire or affection, it is therefore expressly said in this verse, “Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave to Abram, her man,” which there would have been no need of repeating if it did not involve such things in the internal sense, for in themselves these words would be superfluous.
[3] Intellectual truth is distinguished from rational truth, and this from truth in the form of memory-knowledge, as are what is internal, what is intermediate, and what is external. Intellectual truth is internal, rational truth is intermediate, truth of memory-knowledge is external. These are most distinct from each other, because one is more internal than another. With any man whatever, intellectual truth, which is internal, or in his inmost, is not the man’s, but is the Lord’s with the man. From this the Lord flows into the rational, where truth first appears as belonging to man; and through the rational into the memory-knowledge; from which it is evident that man cannot possibly think as of himself from intellectual truth, but only from rational truth and truth of memory-knowledge, because these appear as if they were his.
[4] The Lord alone, when He lived in the world, thought from intellectual truth, for this was His Divine truth in conjunction with Good, or the Divine spiritual in conjunction with the Divine celestial, and herein was the Lord distinguished from every other man. To think from what is Divine as from himself is never possible to man, nor in man, but only in Him who was conceived of Jehovah. Because He thought from intellectual truth, that is, from the love or affection of intellectual truth, from it also He desired the rational, and this is why it is here said that “Sarai, Abram’s wife” (by whom is meant the affection of intellectual truth) “took Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to Abram her husband, for a woman to him.”
[5] The rest of the arcana that are herein cannot be unfolded and explained to the apprehension, because man is in the greatest obscurity, and in fact has no idea at all of the internal things within him, for he makes both the rational and the intellectual to consist in memory-knowledge, and is not aware that these are distinct from each other, so distinct indeed that the intellectual can exist apart from the rational, and also the rational that is derived from the intellectual, apart from the memory-knowledge. This cannot but seem a paradox to those who are in memory-knowledges, but still it is the truth. It is however impossible for anyone to be in the truth that is in the form of memory-knowledge (that is, in the affection of this and the belief in it), unless he is in rational truth, into which and through which the Lord inflows from the intellectual. These arcana do not open to man except in the other life.
1905. Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid. That this signifies the life of the exterior man, and the affection of memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “Hagar,” as given above, n. 1895, 1896; and from the signification of an “Egyptian,” and also of a “handmaid,” likewise explained there.
1906. After ten years of Abram’s dwelling in the land of Canaan. That this signifies the remains of good and of the derivative truth which the Lord procured to Himself, and by means of which that rational was conceived, is evident from the signification of “ten,” as being remains, spoken of before (n. 576). What remains are, has been stated and shown above (n. 468, 530, 560, 561, 661, 798, 1050), namely, that they are all the states of the affection of good and truth with which a man is gifted by the Lord, from earliest infancy even to the end of life; which states are stored up for him for the use of his life after death; for in the other life all the states of his life return in succession, and are then tempered by the states of good and truth with which he has been gifted by the Lord. The more remains therefore that a man has received in the life of the body, that is, the more of good and truth, the more delightful and beautiful do the rest of his states appear when they return. That this is really so may be evident to everyone, if he will consider. When a man is born he has not a particle of good of himself, but is wholly defiled throughout with hereditary evil, and all that is good flows in, such as his love for his parents, his nurses, his companions; and this from innocence. Such are the things that flow in from the Lord through the heaven of innocence and peace, which is the inmost heaven, and thus is man imbued with them in his infancy.
[2] Afterwards, when he grows up, this good, innocent, and peaceful state of infancy recedes little by little; and so far as he is introduced into the world, he comes into its pleasures, and into cupidities, and thus into evils; and so far the celestial or good things of the age of infancy begin to disappear; but still they remain, and the states which the man afterwards puts on or acquires are tempered by them. Without them a man can never be a man, for the states of the cupidities, or of evil, if not tempered by states of the affection of good, would be more atrocious than those of any animal. These states of good are what are called remains, given by the Lord and implanted in one’s natural disposition, and this when the man is not aware of it.
[3] In after life he is also gifted with new states; but these are not so much states of good as states of truth, for as he is growing up he is imbued with truths, and these are in like manner stored up in him in his interior man. By these remains, which are those of truth, born of the influx of spiritual things from the Lord, man has the ability to think, and also to understand what the good and the truth of civic and moral life are, and also to receive spiritual truth or faith; but he cannot do this except by means of the remains of good that he had received in infancy. That there are remains, and that they are stored up in a man in his interior rational, is wholly unknown to man; and this because he supposes that nothing flows in, but that everything is natural to him, and born with him, thus that it is all in him when an infant, when yet the real case is altogether different. Remains are treated of in many parts of the Word, and by them are signified those states by which man becomes a man, and this from the Lord alone.
[4] But the remains that appertained to the Lord were all the Divine states which He procured for Himself, and by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence. These cannot be compared to the remains that pertain to man, for the latter are not Divine, but human. It is the remains appertaining to the Lord that are signified by the “ten years in which Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan.” When angels hear the Word, they do not know what the number ten is, but as soon as it is named by man the idea of remains occurs to them; for by “ten” and “tenths” in the Word are signified remains, as is evident from what was shown above (n. 576, 1738); and when a perception comes to them based on the idea of the end of the ten years that Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, the idea of the Lord comes to them, and at the same time innumerable things that are signified by the remains in the Lord during the time that He was in the world.
1907. And gave her to Abram her man for a woman to him. That this signifies conjunction through the incitation of the affection of truth, is evident from what has already been said concerning Sarai, the wife of Abram, as being the affection of truth in the genuine sense; and from what has been said respecting the conjunction of the internal man with the life and affection of the exterior man, whence comes the rational. Hagar was not given to Abram for a wife, but for a woman; and this because it is according to a law of Divine order that it is not marriage unless it is that of one man and one wife. Conjugial love can never be divided. The love that is divided among a number is not conjugial love, but is that of lasciviousness, on which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy hereafter.
1908. Verse 4. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes. “He went in unto Hagar,” signifies the conjunction of the internal man with the life which is of the affection of memory-knowledges; “and she conceived” signifies the first life of the rational; “and she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes,” signifies that this rational at its conception lightly esteemed the truth itself that was adjoined to good.
1909. He went in unto Hagar. That this signifies the conjunction of the internal man with the life which is of the affection of memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “Hagar,” as being the life of the exterior or natural man (explained above at verse 1) and that this life is the life of the affection of memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of the “Egyptian handmaid” (also explained above). There are many affections belonging to the exterior man, all dedicated to their uses; but the affection of knowledges [cognitiones et scientiae] stands preeminent above them all, when it has for its end that we may become truly rational, for thus it has good and truth for its end. The very life of the internal man flows into all the affections of the natural man, but is varied there according to the ends; when it flows into affections which have the world for their end, this end is vivified by that life, and there results worldly life; when into affections which have self for their end, this end is vivified by that life, and there results corporeal life; and so in all other cases. It is from this that cupidities and phantasies live, but a life contrary to the affection of good and truth.
[2] The inflowing life is applied to no other object than the end, because with everyone his end is his love, and it is the love alone that lives. All other objects are only derivations from this, and they all draw their life from the end. Everyone may see what kind of life he has, if he will only search out what his end is; not what all his ends are-for he has numberless ones, as many as intentions, and almost as many as judgments and conclusions of thoughts, which are only intermediate ends, variously derived from the principal one, or tending to it-but let him search out the end he prefers to all the rest, and in respect to which all others are as nothing. If he has for his end himself and the world, let him know that his life is infernal; but if he has for his end the good of his neighbor, the common good, the Lord’s kingdom, and especially the Lord Himself, let him know that his life is heavenly.
1910. And she conceived. That this signifies the first life of the rational, is evident from the signification of “conception,” as being the first life. As regards the rational, it receives its life, as before said, from the life of the internal man flowing into the life of the affection of knowledges [cognitiones et scientiae] in the exterior man. The life of the affection of these knowledges gives a sort of body to the rational, or clothes the life of the internal man as the body clothes the soul; for this is precisely the case with these knowledges. In everything appertaining to man, in everything of his affection and in everything of his thought, there is the idea or likeness of soul and body, for there is nothing, however simple it may appear, that is not composite, and that does not come forth from what is prior to itself.
1911. And she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes. That this signifies that this rational, at its conception, lightly esteemed the truth itself that was adjoined to good, is evident from the signification of the “mistress,” or Sarai, as being truth adjoined to good. The rational first conceived cannot acknowledge intellectual or spiritual truth as truth, because there adhere to this rational many fallacies from the memory-knowledges drawn from the world and from nature, and many appearances from the knowledges taken from the literal sense of the Word, and these are not truths.
[2] For example: it is an intellectual truth that all life is from the Lord; but the rational first conceived does not apprehend this, and supposes that if it did not live from itself it would have no life; nay, it is indignant if the contrary is said, as has been many times perceived from the spirits who still cling to the fallacies of the senses.
[3] It is an intellectual truth that all good and truth are from the Lord; but the rational first conceived does not apprehend this, because it has the feeling that they are as from itself; and it also supposes that if good and truth were not from itself, it could have no thought of good and truth, and still less do anything good and true; and that if they are from another it should let itself go, and wait all the time for influx.
[4] It is an intellectual truth that nothing but good is from the Lord, and not even the least of evil; and this too the rational first conceived does not believe, but supposes that because the Lord governs everything, evil also is from Him; and that because He is omnipotent and omnipresent, and is good itself, and does not take away the punishments of the evil in hell, He wills the evil of punishment; when yet He does evil to no one, nor does He will that anyone should be punished.
[5] It is an intellectual truth that the celestial man has from the Lord a perception of good and truth; but the first rational either denies the existence of perception altogether, or supposes that if a man were to perceive from another, and not from himself, he would be as if inanimate, or devoid of life. In fact the more the rational thinks from memory-knowledges that originate from sensuous things and from philosophical reasonings, the less does it apprehend the foregoing and all other intellectual truths, for the fallacies therefrom are involved in so much the darker shades. Hence it is that the learned believe less than others.
[6] Since the rational first conceived is such, it is evident that it despises its mistress, that is, it lightly esteems intellectual truth. Intellectual truth does not become manifest, that is, is not acknowledged, except insofar as fallacies and appearances are dispersed, and these are not dispersed so long as the man reasons about truths themselves from things of sense and from memory-knowledges, but it for the first time becomes manifest when he believes from a simple heart that it is truth because so said by the Lord. Then the shades of fallacies are dispersed, and then nothing in him prevents him from apprehending it.
[7] In the Lord however there were no fallacies, but when His rational was first conceived there were appearances of truth that in themselves were not truths, as is evident from what has been already said (n. 1661). Hence also His rational at its first conception lightly esteemed intellectual truth; but gradually, as His rational was made Divine, the clouds of the appearances were dispersed, and intellectual truths lay open to Him in their light; and this is represented and signified by Ishmael being expelled from the house when Isaac grew up. That the Lord did not lightly esteem intellectual truth, but that He perceived and saw that His new rational did so, will be seen from what follows (n. 1914).
1912. Verse 5. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee; I gave my handmaid into thy bosom, and she saw that she conceived, and I am despised in her eyes; Jehovah judge between me and thee. “Sarai said unto Abram,” signifies that the affection of truth so perceived; “My wrong be upon thee; I gave my handmaid into thy bosom,” signifies unwillingness to take blame to itself; “and she saw that she conceived,” signifies the first life of the rational; “and I am despised in her eyes,” signifies here as before that this rational at its conception lightly esteemed truth adjoined to good; “Jehovah judge between me and thee,” signifies the Lord’s indignation.
1913. Sarai said unto Abram. That this signifies that the affection of truth so perceived, is evident from the signification of “Sarai,” as being the affection of truth (see n. 1904); and of saying, as being in the internal sense perceiving-as before said (n. 1898) where the same words occur.
Emanuel Swedenborg · Clowes / Potts English edition · Source edition · German edition.