3. Aquellos de la iglesia que han negado al Señor, reconociendo tan sólo al Padre, y que se han confirmado en semejante fe, están fuera del cielo, y puesto que en ellos no tiene lugar influjo alguno del cielo, donde el Señor solo es adorado, son gradualmente privados de la facultad de pensar la verdad de cualquier cosa, y acaban por quedar o bien como mudos o bien hablando necedades, con el paso vacilante, los brazos pendientes y vibrando como si les faltare fuerzas en las articulaciones. Por otra parte, aquellos que han negado la Divinidad del Señor, reconociendo tan sólo su Humanidad, como los Socinianos, están igualmente fuera del cielo; son conducidos adelante un poco hacia la derecha, y despedidos en la profundidad, siendo así enteramente separados del resto del mundo cristiano. Pero los que se dicen creer en una Divinidad invisible, a la que llaman Ente del Universo (Ens Universi) y a la que atribuyen todas las cosas, rechazando la fe en el Señor, se aperciben de que no creen en Dios alguno, porque la Divinidad invisible es para ellos lo mismo que la Naturaleza en sus rudimentos, los cuales no pueden ser objeto de fe ni de amor porque no alcanza a ellos el pensamiento. Estos son desterrados con aquellos que se llaman naturalistas. Otra cosa sucede con los que han nacido fuera de la iglesia, llamados gentiles, de quienes hablaremos más adelante.

8682. 'To eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God' means making their own these things coming from Divine Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3832, 4745; and from the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, dealt with in 2165, 2177, 3464, 3735, 4211, 4217, 4735, 5915, its coming from Divine Good being meant by the statement that they were going to eat bread 'before God'. Here 'bread' is used to mean all the food they had then, in particular the flesh of the sacrifices; for when sacrifices were offered, the flesh in them was eaten beside the altar. For the meaning of 'bread' as all food in general, see 2165.

The reason why the flesh of the sacrifices was eaten was in order that making heavenly good one's own might be represented, as well as togetherness in love. The flesh of a sacrifice, eaten by them then, meant the good of love, which was why this was for them a sacred feast. For the meaning of 'flesh' as the good of love, see 7850. From this one can see what the Lord meant when He said that they were to eat His flesh, John 6:53-56, and also, when He instituted the Holy Supper, that the bread was His body, Matthew 26:26. No one can possibly know what He meant then unless he knows that His words have an inner sense, and that in this sense celestial and spiritual realities are meant instead of natural things, and that natural things correspond to those realities and have spiritual meanings in keeping with correspondences. Without knowledge of these things no one could ever know why the Holy Supper was instituted, what is holy about the bread, why the bread is the body and is the flesh, and countless other questions besides these.