1. APPENDIX to THE WHITE HORSE ¹

Since today it must inevitably appear strange that a horse means the understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, reasonings coming as it were from the understanding which confirm falsehood, I should like to quote more passages still from the Word where the horse is mentioned. Let these suffice:

Is Thine indignation against the sea, O Jehovah, when Thou dost ride upon Thy horses! Thy chariots are salvation. Thou didst trample the sea with Thy horses, the surging of the waters, Habakkuk 3:8, 15.

The hoofs of Jehovah's horses are reckoned as flint, Isaiah 5:28.

At Thy rebuke both chariot and horse lay stunned, Psalm 76:5-6.

I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will overthrow the chariot and those that ride in it, and the horses and their horsemen shall go down, Haggai 2:22.

I will cut off the horse from Jerusalem: he shall speak peace to the nations, Zechariah 9:10.

In these places the Church's understanding of truth is meant by the horse, and doctrine derived from it by the chariot; and those who are able to understand and learn from the Word are meant by riders and horsemen. The matter is plainer still from these places:

Gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice; you shall be satisfied at My table with horse and chariot. So I will set My glory among the nations, Ezekiel 39:17, 20-21.

Gather yourselves to the great supper of God, and you shall eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, Revelation 19:17-18.

The subject here is the New Church that is to be established by the Lord. At that time the understanding of the Word will be opened and from it men will be taught the doctrine of truth. What else would the statements that they were to be filled at the Lord's table with horse and chariot, and that they were to eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, be but utter absurdities! In addition to the examples already brought forward, the meaning of horse and chariot is obvious from these places:

Gird on Thy sword, O Mighty One! Mount, and ride on the Word of truth, Psalm 45:3-4.

Sing, lift up a song to Him Who rides upon the clouds, Psalm 68:4.

Jehovah comes riding upon a cloud, Isaiah 19:1.

Sing to the Lord Who is riding on the highest heaven of old, Psalm 68:33-34.

God rode on a cherub, Psalm 18:10.

Then you shall take delight in Jehovah, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, Isaiah 58:14; Deuteronomy 32:13.

I will make Ephraim ride, Hosea 10:11.

By riding in these passages is meant teaching and being taught the truths of doctrine, and thus being wise. By the heights of the earth are meant the summits of the Church, and by Ephraim also the understanding of the Word. Like matters are meant by horses and chariots, by the four chariots coming out between the mountains of bronze, and by the four horses harnessed to them, which were red, black, white, and dappled grey, and which are also called spirits and are said to have gone forth from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth, Zechariah 6:1-8, 15.

Things of a similar nature are meant by these words as well:

When the Lamb opened the seals of the book horses went out in order, first a white horse, second a red horse, third a black horse, and fourth a pale horse, Revelation 6:1-8.

It is obvious that by the book whose seals the Lamb opened the Word is meant, out of which nothing else could come except the understanding of it. What other meaning could horses coming out of an opened book have!

It is clear that a horse means the understanding of truth and a chariot doctrine from the same words when they are used in a contrary sense. A horse then means the understanding falsifying truths by means of mere reasonings, and a chariot consequent doctrine, that is, heresy, as in the following places:

Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help and rely on horses and do not look to the Holy One of Israel! For Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit, Isaiah 31:1, 3.

You shall set over Israel a king whom Jehovah shall choose, only let him not multiply horses for himself nor lead the people back into Egypt to multiply horses, Deuteronomy 17:14-16.

These matters have been stated because by Egypt is meant the natural man, who corrupts the truths of the Word by mere reasonings from the physical senses. What else could the horses of Egypt being flesh and not spirit, and the king not having to multiply horses, that is, falsehoods that have to do with religion, mean?

Assyria will not save us, we will not ride upon a horse, Hosea 14:3.

Some boast of the chariot and others of horses but we will boast of the name of our God, Psalm 20:7-8.

A horse is a vain thing for safety, Psalm 33:17.

The Holy One of Israel said, In trust shall be your strength. But you said, No. We will flee on a horse, we will ride on a swift one, Isaiah 30:15-16.

Jehovah will set Judah like a glorious horse; they shall put to shame those riding on horses, Zechariah 10:3-5.

I will bring against Tyre the king of Babylon, with horse and with chariot, and with horsemen. Their horses shall be so many that their dust will cover you, and the noise of horse and chariot so much that your walls will be shaken. With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets, Ezekiel 26:7-11.

By Tyre in the Word is meant the Church as regards its cognitions of good and truth, and by the king of Babylon the falsification and profanation of them. Hence it says here that he will come with horse and chariot and horsemen, and that the horses will be so many that their dust will cover him. Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies, with whinnying horse and bounding chariot, Nahum 3:1-4.

By the bloody city is meant doctrine derived from truths of the Word that have been falsified. And in other places as well, such as Isaiah 5:26, 28; Jeremiah 6:23, 8:16, 46:4, 9, 50:37-38, 42; Ezekiel 17:15, 23:6, 20; Habakkuk 1:6, 8-10; Psalms 66:11-12, 147:10. A falsified and ruined understanding of truth that is in the Word is also meant by the red, black, and pale horses of Revelation 6:4-5, 8. Since therefore a horse means an understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, an understanding of falsehood, it is clear what the Word is like in its spiritual sense.

It is well known that hieroglyphics existed in Egypt and that these were inscribed on columns and temple walls, etc., and that nobody knows nowadays what they meant. They were nothing else but correspondences of natural and spiritual things, to which the Egyptians applied themselves more than any other peoples of their own times in Asia, and it was according to these correspondences that the ancient Greeks composed their fables. The most ancient style was nothing else but this. To all these matters let me add one that is new: All things that manifest themselves in the spiritual world to angels and spirits are without exception correspondences, and for that very reason the whole of the Sacred Scripture has been written by means of correspondences [in the margin: in order that by means of it, as this is the nature of it, men of the Church would be conjoined with angels of heaven]. But because the Egyptians, and others with them in the kingdoms of Asia, began to turn those correspondences into forms of idolatry which the children of Israel tended to favour, the latter were forbidden to call them back into any use at all, as is quite plain from the first of the Ten Commandments where these words appear:

You shall not make for yourself any carved image which is in the heavens above or which is on the earth beneath or which is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I am Jehovah your God, Deuteronomy 5:8-9.

And there are many more examples elsewhere. From that time on the knowledge of correspondences was blotted out. This happened by stages, in so much that nowadays its existence in the past is almost unknown, or that there is such a thing. Now however because a New Church is to be established by the Lord, one that is to be based on the Word, and which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, the Lord has been pleased to reveal that knowledge, and so to open up the Word to show what it is like inside in its inmost parts, that is, to show what it is in the spiritual sense. This has been done by means of myself in ARCANA COELESTIA, published in London, and afterwards in APOCALYPSE REVEALED, published in Amsterdam. Since for men of early times that knowledge was the greatest knowledge of all, and from it came their wisdom, it is important that some member of your academy should devote his labours to that knowledge, which can be done chiefly from the correspondences disclosed in APOCALYPSE REVEALED and proved from the Word. If there is a demand for it I am willing to unravel the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are nothing else but correspondences, and have the matter published. Nobody else can do it.

Em. Swedenborg

Footnotes:

8159. 'And Pharaoh drew near' means an oppressive influx from there of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of 'drawing near' as influx. The internal sense deals with the first temptation of those who have been delivered, and all temptation comes about through influx from the hells. For spirits from there stir up and bring out all the wicked deeds a person has performed and wicked thoughts he has entertained, and they use these to incriminate him and condemn him. As a result he suffers pangs of conscience, and anxiety fills his mind. These feelings are brought about by an influx from the hells, in particular from the hell that is represented by the Sea Suph. From all this one may see that in the spiritual sense, which is dealing with temptations, 'drawing near' means influx.

[2] Since the verses which immediately follow deal with the first temptation of those belonging to the spiritual Church, it should be realized that those people could not undergo temptations until after the Lord had glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, and was present among them in this glorified Human. If they had undergone them before then they would have given way; for those belonging to the spiritual Church were saved solely by the Lord's Divine Human. The temptations of those belonging to the spiritual Church, which they were to undergo after the Lord had come into the world, when He would be able to fight from the Divine Human for them against the hells, are meant by the following words in Malachi,

Suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, said Jehovah Zebaoth. Who can endure the day of His Coming, and who will stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold, and like silver, in order that they may bring to Jehovah a minchah in righteousness. Then the minchah of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to Jehovah, as in the days of eternity, and as in former years. Malachi 3:1-4.

This plainly refers to the Lord's Coming. 'The sons of Levi' here are members of the spiritual Church, for 'Levi' means charity or spiritual good, 3875, 4497, 4502, 4503. 'A refiner's fire' is temptation, the means of purification, which 'purifying and purging them like gold and silver' is used to mean. 'The minchah' they will bring to Jehovah is faith and charity; and 'the days of eternity' and 'former years' are the Ancient Churches and states of worship of the Lord in those times.

[3] As regards the nature of temptations, it is as has been stated above in 8131, that the hells fight against a person and the Lord for a person. Any falsity that the hells introduce is met with a response from the Divine. The falsities which come from hell are thrust into and enter the external or natural man, but the response from the Divine enters the internal or spiritual man. The person is less conscious of this response which comes from the Divine than he is of those falsities. It does not touch his individual thoughts, only his general awareness, yet in such a way that he scarcely comes to be conscious of it except as hope and consequent comfort, which however hold within them countless blessings that the person has no knowledge of. These are such that they are suited to his affection or love, especially his affection for or love of truth and goodness, which form his conscience.

[4] These things have been stated to let it be known that the life of the children of Israel in the wilderness describes the temptations, in the sequence in which they occurred, that were undergone by those who belonged to the Lord's spiritual Church and were delivered. The reason why they underwent the temptations was in order that they might be prepared further for heaven. For through temptations, through them as the one and only means, forms of good and truths are corroborated and joined together. Through them charity becomes the charity that goes with faith, and faith becomes the faith that goes with charity. The fact that those who belong to the Church must undergo temptations is what one should understand by the following things the Lord said, in Matthew,

Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:38-39; Mark 8:31 end.

In the same gospel,

He said to His disciples, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. Matthew 16:24-25; Luke 9:23-24.

In Luke,

Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27.

In Mark,

Jesus said to the rich [young ruler], Come, follow Me, taking up the cross. Mark 10:21.

And in Matthew,

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34.

[5] But it should be recognized that in temptations a person does not do the fighting; the Lord alone does it for the person, though the appearance is that it is done by the person. And when the Lord does the fighting for a person, the person is in all things victorious. At the present day few are allowed to experience temptations because they do not live as faith requires and do not therefore possess a conscience composed of truth; and anyone without a conscience composed of truth as a result of leading a good life goes under, and then his latter state is worse than his former.