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Arcana Coelestia #6008

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6008. 'And Joseph will put his hand on your eyes means that the internal celestial will impart life to it. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with in 5869, 5877; and from the meaning of 'putting a hand on the eyes' as imparting life. For 'putting a hand on the eyes' is used to mean that the external or bodily senses will be closed and the internal senses opened, thus that a raising up will be effected and life will thereby be imparted. A hand was placed on people's eyes when they were dying because 'death' meant an awakening into life, 3498, 3505, 4618, 4621. For when a person dies he does not really die; he merely lays aside the body that has served him for his use in the world and passes into the next life in a body which serves him for his use there.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #329

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329. From the final end in creation it can be seen what a form of use is. The final end in creation is the existence of an angelic heaven. And because the angelic heaven is the final end, so, too, is mankind or the human race, since heaven is formed from it. It follows from this that all other phenomena created are intermediate ends, and that these are forms of use in the order, degree and respect that they have relation to mankind and through mankind to the Lord.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.