"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

What amazing words these must have been to Mary, a young woman, when she first heard them. Just minutes before she had probably been engaged in some mundane task of daily life in her mother's home, perhaps grinding flour or baking bread, maybe weaving or spinning wool into yarn. If she was like most young women who are shortly to be married, her mind would have been turned to her future life with Joseph, what their home would be like, the children they would have and the life that they would lead together. Happy images of the future would have filled her thoughts. She would have had her hopes, dreams and expectations--images of how her life would be as the future wife of Joseph.

Suddenly with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, her visions of the future contained a new and dramatically different element. The angel told her that she was highly favored and blessed among women, that the Lord was with her and that she would soon conceive and bring forth a son whose name would be Jesus. This child would be given the throne of Mary's ancient forebear, King David, and reign forever.

Mary voiced the question of how this would take place. She knew the order of natural conception and knew that the angel's message did not fit into this order. In explanation the angel Gabriel told her of the greatest miracle of all time saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. Some people are troubled by the idea of miracles based on their picture of cause and effect in this world. They have accepted that the only causes are natural ones, the laws of physics and so on. For such a person the idea of Jesus being born without a natural father is fantastic beyond belief.

But we are called to believe that miracles have and do occur. There are forces that attack this belief. We have grown up in a culture that has a strong sense of natural order. Science today is capable of explaining so many events that previously were mysteries. It is capable of explaining them by means of fundamental laws of nature. For some this sense of natural law can become so strong that the Lord's active presence within creation vanishes. For some there is no Divine intervention within this system. All is fixed and moves along with changes taking place by mere random accident. But it could be noted that according to natural law most changes result in more chaos, not less chaos. Changes tend toward the break down of a higher order into a lower one.

Think of the example of a person quickly typing out a document on a computer. You would expect that errors would be introduced into the typing. What is the likelihood that the errors would improve the original document? It’s possible, but rather unexpected. But the argument for pure natural evolution is that given enough time and the forces of natural selection life as we now know it has developed. Asserting that human life came about purely by random accidents starting with the genetic code of the most primitive life millions of years ago seems akin to saying that given enough time and enough typed copies a simple child’s nursery rhyme could evolve into a Shakespearean play without any plan or higher thought being involved.

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. However, the Writings for the New Church have taught us that we are not to expect to see the miracles of the Old and New Testaments performed today in the same way they were performed in the time those books were written. We read:

The reason miracles are not done at this day, as before, is that miracles compel, and take away free will in spiritual things; and from being spiritual, they make a person natural. All in the Christian world . . . can become spiritual; and they become spiritual solely from the Lord through the Word; and the faculty for this would perish if they were brought to believe through miracles. (True Christian Religion 501)

Partially based on statements such as this, a person can come to a pattern of thinking that does not believe in the Lord’s ability to affect things for good in a miraculous way even today. A person could believe in God, but still tend to view the progression of his or her life as following laws of a machine-like system. Anything that does not fit into this fixed system is believed to be a miracle that would take away spiritual freedom--the very freedom that the Lord was born into the world to reestablish.

Perhaps, though, it is too easy for us to become too limited in our view. So limited that we block out a sight of the miracles that can occur within our own lives without taking away our spiritual freedom. Perhaps it is too easy for this limited point of view to block out a sense of the Lord's presence, a sense of the Holy Spirit's presence. How does the Lord reach out to touch our lives?

What of Mary's life? The events surrounding the first Christmas were a major intervention within her life. The same is true of her husband to be, Joseph. Both of them could have denied the possibility of a miraculous conception and this state of denial would have been far more damaging than that of Zacharias's. Could the Lord's birth ever have taken place if Mary was not willing to accept the angel's words? Her firstborn was to have a continuing effect throughout her whole life. His presence was not without many events that brought a sense of awe and wonder to both Mary and Joseph. We know of at least one event that showed that raising Jesus was not always easy. At age 12, they spent three anxious days searching for Him, only to find Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers, listening and asking questions.

In addition to the way in which Jesus' birth and life intervened in Joseph and Mary's life, think of the way His presence affected the disciples. Many of them were happily going about their daily jobs when they were called to leave all behind and follow Him. While this intervention sometimes involved something of the miraculous, it also involved an element of free will. Just as Joseph and Mary could have resisted the words of the angel announcing that the Lord would be born, so also the disciples could have heard the Lord call them to follow and shook their heads and returned to their work. There were many, many others who were influenced in this same way. Many others who heard the Lord's words calling to them and had their lives profoundly influenced by what He said.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives many times each day. While we may not have anything occur in our lives that an objective observer would call miraculous, it is not true that our lives will follow some pre-established route, set by our inborn nature and directed by compelling experience of the natural world. The Lord's first birth represents the way in which He comes in any age to anyone who will receive Him. Just as the words of the angel Gabriel would have been a dramatic intervention within the happy normalcy of the future that Mary would have envisioned, so also the Lord can come to us announcing the conception of a future for us that is far different from the one our natural mind would envision. The Lord comes to us offering and promising a far different set of reactions to daily events from the ones we presently have--a different perspective, a far greater patience in some areas and a stronger resolve and commitment in others. He comes to us bringing light to areas of thoughts that we had resigned ourselves to being in deep darkness and bringing warmth to much that we might otherwise have done from need or duty.

The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin, whose name was Mary. Ancient prophecies had promised that the Messiah would be born as the child of a young woman. Several hundred years after this prophecy was given, a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, introduced a new element of the miraculous by using a word in this prophecy that was not the general one for a young woman, but rather the distinctive Greek term for "virgin." When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, the gospel of Matthew records that he quoted this prophecy according to the way it is presented in the Septuagint. The Writings for the New Church make it quite clear that this seemingly added idea is correct and even essential in our understanding of the Lord's advent.

There are two distinct reasons for the importance of a belief in the virgin birth. One reason has to do with the essential need for Jesus to be born with a natural mother but without a natural father if He was going to become our Savior and Redeemer. It was crucial for the work of Jesus that He not derive from His birth any of the internal evils that are passed on through the soul provided by the natural father in any natural conception. His soul and life came directly from the infinite God. His developing mind and life were the ever more perfect manifestation in human form of the Father and creator, our Lord and God. But it was important that He take on a natural mind at first empty of any experience and knowledge as you and I were born with. It was important that He take on the hereditary inclinations to evil that birth to a natural mother brought to His life.

The second reason for believing in the virgin birth exists because of the representation of the term virgin and what this says about how the Lord comes to us in our lives. We are told that a virgin represents someone who willing to have his or her life affected by truth. In this story, Mary represents a state of mind in each of our lives that is not controlled by self interest nor committed to a determined course of action. It is a state of mind that is open to new possibilities.

The Lord comes to us to each of us bringing the promise of a new conception of life just as the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary. He comes promising a rebirth or regeneration of life that is radically different from the one we come by naturally. It is not to the hustle and bustle of established life that He appears, but rather to those states of mind that, like the virgin Mary, look forward to something new and different and most importantly are willing to receive the conception of this new life. The life that comes to us naturally, apart from any presence of the Lord, is like a child conceived of a human father and mother. Without the Lord's presence, this life cannot have any other basis than self-interest and worldly concern. Experience may teach us to broaden this self-interest and to temper these concerns, but apart from the Lord's advent within our lives they will never rise above this level. The Lord is born within each of our lives within the states of mind that are willing to be affected by what the Word teaches--by the states of mind that are willing to rise above the prompting of our natural inclinations to be self-serving and natural in our interests, thoughts and actions. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to turn outward to recognize and serve the needs of those around us. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to recognize that natural things exist to serve the needs of mankind and creation as a whole and have their proper uses as well as their abuses.

Our preparation for the celebration of Christmas, more than any other event of the season, tends to turn people outward to others. It is a time that can help us to recognize the community of caring people that we live in. And it is a time that can remind us that many are in need--there are many people who can use our help. This help may be a matter of providing food, clothing and shelter for those have not been able to or have not yet come to be provident enough to provide them for themselves. It can be a matter of giving a hand to someone who could use some help with a job, sharing some burden with them. Christmas is a time when we give gifts that symbolize and love and friendship for others. The most lasting gifts are those that we give when we recognize the spiritual needs of others—when we recognize that, by our words and actions, we can help the Lord bring loving warmth to another person's life. We, by our words and actions, can bring the light of greater understanding to another person's life. We have the capability of helping others receive far greater blessings in life than they might otherwise. Our preparation for and celebration of Christmas can remind us of how a truly Christian life is one of wisely giving and of serving. The state of mind that receives this reminder is the one imaged by the virgin, Mary.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives, just as the angel Gabriel came to Mary. He comes telling of events that can take place, if we are willing, which far exceed anything we might picture ourselves. He promises us a new life, born within our own, but not taking its source from us. He promises the presence of the Holy Spirit within this new life. He comes with a miraculous intervention in the natural course of events. The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary are also words to us with the promise of a new life that will profoundly affect what we care about, think and do each day throughout the year. These words are the promise of a new life for each of us.

After the close of this service you are invited to take the sacrament of the Holy Supper. This act of worship represents our desire to receive the Lord’s gifts of love and wisdom within our lives, represented by our eating of the bread and drinking of the wine. There is a powerful reminder of the words of the angel Gabriel in The True Christian Religion description of this sacrament

...the Holy Supper for those who approach it worthily is a kind of guarantee and seal put on their adoption as sons of God ... the Lord is then present and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerated. (True Christian Religion 728)

As the angel Gabriel said to Mary, so the Lord would say to us, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

(Ссылки: Arcana Coelestia 1573 [1-8]; Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38)

223.And the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. That this signifies the doctrine of the New Church in the heavens is evident from the signification of the city of my God, as being the doctrine of Divine truth (which will be treated of presently); and from the signification of the New Jerusalem, as being the church as to doctrine (concerning which see the small work, The New Jerusalem 6); and from the signification of which cometh down out of heaven from my God, as denoting that it is out of heaven from the Divine truth there. (That by God in the Word is meant Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 220, 222.) And because Divine truth, which is in heaven, and which comes down therefrom, is from the Lord alone, therefore the Lord calls it His God. That by the city of my God is signified the doctrine of Divine truth, may seem, at first sight, far fetched, because it seems difficult for the mind to think of doctrine when a city is mentioned, and to think of the church when the earth is mentioned; but nevertheless nothing else is meant in the spiritual sense by cities in the Word; the reason is, that the idea of a city, or town, is merely natural, but the idea of doctrine as a city is spiritual. Because the angels are spiritual they can have no other idea of a city than that of the people therein as to their doctrine, as they have no other idea of a land than of a nation as to the church, or as to what is religious there. The reason of this also is that the societies into which the heavens are divided are, for the most part, like cities, and they all differ one from another as to the reception of Divine truth in good; hence also it is that the angels have the idea of the doctrine of truth when a city is mentioned. (That the heavens are divided into societies according to the differences of the good of love and faith, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 41-50; and that their dwellings are arranged in the form of cities, n. 184 in the same work.)

That by cities in the Word are signified doctrines is evident from many passages, of which we shall only adduce the following, by way of confirmation.

[2] In Jeremiah:

"Behold, I have given thee for a defenced city against the whole land" (1:18).

These things are said to the prophet, because by a prophet in the Word is signified one who teaches truth, and in the abstract the doctrine of truth. Such being the signification of a prophet, it is therefore said unto him, "I have given thee for a defenced city," by which is therefore signified the doctrine of truth defending against falsities. (That by prophet in the Word is signified one who teaches truth, and, in the abstract, the doctrine of truth, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2534, 7269.) Again:

"The crown of your gracefulness cometh down. The cities of the south are shut" (13:18, 19).

The subject here treated of is the falsification of truth; and by the crown of their gracefulness coming down is meant that intelligence shall come down; and by the cities of the south being shut is meant that all the truths of doctrine, which otherwise would have been in light, will be obscured. (That a crown denotes intelligence and wisdom may be seen above, n. 126, 218; and that the south denotes a state of light, see the work, Heaven and Hell 148, 149, 151.)

[3] In Isaiah:

"Thou hast made counsels from afar, truth and faithfulness; and thou hast made of a city a heap, of a defenced city a ruin, a palace of strangers of a city, that it may not be built for ever; wherefore a strong people shall honour thee, a city of strong nations shall fear thee" (25:1-3).

The vastation of the former church, and the establishment of a new one, are here treated of; the vastation of the church as to doctrine, is meant by making of a city an heap, a defenced city a ruin, a palace of strangers of a city; and the establishment of a new church as to doctrine, is meant by, A strong people shall honour thee, the city of the strong nations shall fear thee.

Again:

In that day shall the song be sung in the land of Judah, We have a strong city; salvation will He appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the just nation which keepeth faithfulnesses may enter in (26:1, 2).

Here, by a strong city, is signified the doctrine of genuine truth, which falsities cannot destroy; walls and bulwarks signify truths for defence; gates, admission (see above, n. 208). The just nation keeping faithfulnesses denotes those who are in good and thence in truths.

[4] Again:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer: thou art cut down to the earth, that made the world into a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof. Prepare slaughter for his sons, that they may not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities" (14:12, 17, 21).

By Lucifer is here meant Babel, where all the truth of the doctrine of the church was either falsified or annihilated. By the world which he made into a wilderness, and the cities thereof which he destroyed, are signified the church and its doctrinals. Preparing slaughter for his sons that they may not rise, signifies that its falsities should be destroyed. By their not possessing the land, and not filling the faces of the world with cities, is signified that they should be prevented from establishing such a church and such doctrine. In the Apocalypse:

"The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell" (16:19).

In this passage Babel is treated of; its false doctrines are meant by the city divided into three parts, and the evils therefrom by the cities of the nations which are said to have fallen.

[5] In David:

"The redeemed of Jehovah wandered in the wilderness in the solitude of the way; they found no city of habitation; hungry and thirsty, he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation" (Psalms 107:2, 4, 5, 7).

To wander in a wilderness and in the solitude of the way denotes that they were in want of the knowledges of truth and good. That they could not find a city of habitation denotes that there was no doctrine of truth according to which they might live. The hungry and thirsty are those who were in the desire of knowing good and truth. To lead them by a right way that they might go to a city of habitation signifies to lead them into genuine truth and the doctrine of life.

In Isaiah:

"I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities are devastated that they may be without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land be reduced to a desert" (6:11).

The total vastation of the church is here treated of; cities signify truths of doctrine; houses, the goods thereof; and land, the church.

[6] Again:

"The land shall be utterly emptied, the land shall be confounded, the land shall be profaned under its inhabitants; the empty city shall be broken, every house shall be shut, a cry over the wine in the streets, the remnant in the city wasteness, and the gate shall be smitten even to devastation" (24:3-5, 10-12).

Here also the devastation of the church is treated of; for by the land, which is said to be utterly emptied, confounded and profaned, is signified the church. By city is signified the truth of doctrine, and by house, the good thereof. By wine over which there is a cry in the streets is signified the truth of doctrine falsified, respecting which there is contest and indignation.

[7] In Zephaniah:

"I will cut off the nations; I will desolate their streets, and their cities shall be laid waste" (3:6).

Nations denote those who are in evils, streets denote truths, and cities doctrines. In Jeremiah:

"The lion cometh up from the thicket to reduce thy land to wasteness, thy cities shall be destroyed; I saw Carmel a desert, and all cities thereof desolate; for this the land shall mourn; before the voice of the horseman and the archers the whole city fleeth; the whole city is deserted, not a man dwelling therein" (4:7, 26, 28, 29).

By the lion coming up from the thicket is signified falsity proceeding from evil; the land denotes the church, and cities denote the truths of doctrine. By Carmel is meant the spiritual church. The voice of the horseman and archers, on account of which it is said the whole city shall flee, denotes reasonings and combat from falsities.

[8] Again:

"The spoiler shall come upon every city, so that no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed" (48:8).

By these words also is described the total vastation of the church, until nothing of the truth of doctrine remains. Again:

"Behold, waters rising up out of the north, which shall become an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, the city and them that dwell therein" (47:2).

Here, by an overflowing flood is also signified vastation.

Again:

"If ye hallow the day of the Sabbath, there shall enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes riding in chariots and on horses, and this city shall be inhabited to eternity" (17:24, 25).

By hallowing the Sabbath, in the spiritual sense, is signified the holy acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord and of His conjunction with heaven and the church. By kings and princes entering in through the gates of the city, are signified the truths of the church; their riding in chariots and on horses signifies that they shall be in the truths of doctrine and in intelligence; the city, which is Jerusalem, is the church as to doctrine: such is the spiritual sense of these words: such is it in heaven.

[9] Again, in Zechariah:

"Thus said Jehovah; I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" (8:3, 5).

[10] By Zion in this passage is not meant Zion, nor by Jerusalem, Jerusalem; but by Zion is signified the celestial church, and by Jerusalem that church as to the doctrine of truth; this is why it is that it is called a city of truth. By the streets of the city are signified truths of doctrine; by boys and girls playing in the streets thereof are signified the affections of truth and good. (That by Zion is signified the celestial church, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2362, 9055: that by Jerusalem is signified the church as to doctrine, n. 402, 3654, 9166, in the small work, The New Jerusalem 6. That by streets are signified truths of doctrine, n. 2336; that by boys girls are signified affections of truth good in which there is innocence 3067, 3110, 3179, 5236, 6742; that to play denotes what pertains to interior festivity, which is that of the affection of truth and good, n. 10416.) Because Zion signifies the celestial church, and Jerusalem the church as to the doctrine of truth, therefore Zion is called the city of Jehovah, and Jerusalem the holy city, the city of God, and the city of the great king: as in Isaiah:

"They shall call thee, The city of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel" (60:14).

In Ezekiel:

The prophet saw upon a high mountain the frame of a city on the south; and an angel measured the city, the wall, the gates, the chambers, and the porch of the gate; and the name of the city was Jehovah there (40:1, and following verses; 48:35).

In Isaiah:

"Behold, Jehovah hath caused it to be heard, even to the extremity of the land, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; thou shalt be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken" (62:11, 12).

In David:

"As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish it for ever" (Psalms 48:8).

(What the celestial church is, and what the spiritual church, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 20-28.) Those two cities are called holy cities, in Isaiah:

"Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation" (64:10).

Jerusalem in particular is called the holy city, in the Apocalypse:

The gentiles shall tread the holy city under foot (11:2).

In another place:

"I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven" (21:2).

In Matthew:

"The devil took Jesus into the holy city" (4:5).

[11] And again:

"They came out of the tombs, and went into the holy city" (27:53).

Jerusalem was called the holy city because it signified the church as to the doctrine of truth; and Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is what is called holy (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 6788, 8302, 9229, 9820, 10361).

That without such representation and resulting signification, that city was not at all holy, but rather profane, is evident from the circumstance that the Lord was there rejected and crucified; therefore also it is called Sodom and Egypt in the Apocalypse (11:8). But because it signified the church as to the doctrine of truth, it was not only called the holy city, but also the city of God, and the city of the great king; as in David:

"A river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her" (Psalms 46:4, 5).

Again:

"Great is Jehovah in the city of our God, beautiful for situation, the city of the great king" (Psalms 48:1, 2).

And in Matthew:

"Thou shalt not swear by the earth, for it is God's footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king" (5:35).

The reason why Jerusalem was called the city of God was, that by God in the Word of the Old Testament is meant the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord (as may be seen above, n. 220, 222). And the reason why it was called the city of the great king was, that by king, when said of the Lord, is likewise signified Divine truth proceeding from Him (as also may be seen above, n. 31).

This now is why Jerusalem is called

The city of truth (Zechariah 8:3).

[12] In Isaiah:

"Thus said Jehovah, thy Redeemer and Former from the womb; I frustrate the tokens of the liars, turning wise men backward, and making their knowledge foolish; saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built; and I will raise up the waste places thereof" (44:24-26).

This passage treats of the rejection of the church the doctrine of which is from man's own intelligence, and of the establishment of a new church, the doctrine of which is from the Lord. Doctrine from man's own intelligence is meant by, I frustrate the tokens of the liars, turning wise men backward, and making their knowledge foolish. And the doctrine which is from the Lord is meant by,

"Saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built."

[13] In Jeremiah:

"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall be laid waste" (7:17, 34).

The cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, in this passage, also signify the truths of doctrine; the voice of joy and the voice of gladness signify delight from the affection of good and truth; the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride signify those affections themselves; and their being caused to cease, is meant by the land being laid waste; the land signifies the church.

[14] In Isaiah:

"I will commix Egypt with Egypt, that they may fight a man against his brother, and a man against his companion; city against city, kingdom against kingdom. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak with the lip of Canaan, and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth. In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of Egypt" (19:2, 18, 19).

By Egypt is meant the natural man and his Scientific. By their fighting, a man against his brother, and a man against his companion, is meant, that they should fight against good and truth. City against city, and kingdom against kingdom, signifies doctrine against doctrine, and church against church. In that day, signifies the coming of the Lord, and the state, at that time, of those who are natural and in scientific truths (veris scientificis). Five cities in the land of Egypt speaking with the lip of Canaan, signify truths of doctrine in abundance, in accord with the genuine truths of the church; five denote many, or in abundance, cities truths of doctrine. The lip of Canaan signifies the genuine truths of the church; an altar to Jehovah there signifies worship from the good of love.

[15] Again:

"The paths are devastated, he that passeth through the way hath ceased; he hath despised the cities, he regardeth not man. The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon hath faded away" (33:8, 9).

By the paths which are devastated, and the way which is not passed through, are denoted truths leading to heaven, which are the truths of the church; to despise the cities denotes to despise truths of doctrine, and to regard not man signifies not to regard truth and good. By the earth which mourneth and languisheth is signified the church as to good; Lebanon which hath faded away denotes the church as to truth.

[16] Again:

"Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; for more are the sons of the desolate than the sons of the married wife. Enlarge the place of thy tent; thy seed shall inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" (54:1-3).

The barren that did not bear signifies the nations who have not as yet possessed truths from the Word; the sons of the desolate denote truths which will be received; the sons of the married wife denote truths with those who are in the church. To enlarge the place of the tent, denotes that they shall worship from good; seed denotes truth thence derived; the nations which it shall inherit denote goods; and the cities which shall be inhabited, denote doctrines therefrom.

[17] In Jeremiah:

"I will bring upon them every good; they shall buy fields with silver, and that by writing in a book, in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountain, and in the cities of the plain, and in the cities of the south" (32:42-44; 33:13).

These things are said of those in the church who are in good and thence in truths. To buy fields with silver denotes to procure for themselves the good of the church by means of truths; to write in a book denotes to implant in the life; the cities of Judah and the cities of the mountain, denote truths of doctrine pertaining to those who are of the Lord's celestial kingdom; the cities of the plain, and the cities of the south denote truths of doctrine pertaining to those who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

[18] In Matthew:

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do they light a lamp, and put it under a bushel" (5:14, 15).

These things were said to the disciples, by whom are signified all truths and goods in the aggregate: therefore it is said, ye are the light of the world; for by light is signified Divine truth and intelligence therefrom. From this signification of those words, it is therefore said, A city that is set on a mountain cannot be hid, neither [can] a lamp be lighted and put under a bushel; for by a city set on a mountain, is signified truth of doctrine from the good of love; and by a lamp is signified, in general, truth from good, and intelligence therefrom.

[19] Again:

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself does not stand" (12:25).

By kingdom, in the spiritual sense, is signified the church; by city and house, the truth and good of its doctrine, which do not stand but fall, if they do not fully agree.

[20] Again:

Jesus sent forth the twelve disciples, saying unto them, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (10:5, 6).

The way of the Gentiles into which they were not to go signifies falsity from evil; the city of the Samaritans into which they were forbidden to enter signifies the false doctrine of those who reject the Lord; the lost sheep of the house of Israel signify those who are in the good of charity and thence in faith, Israel, denoting these, wherever they are. That the city of the Samaritans signifies the false doctrine of those who reject the Lord, is, because the Samaritans did not receive Him (as may be seen in Luke 9:52-56).

[21] Again, in Matthew:

Jesus said, "when they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another" (10:23).

Here also by city is meant the doctrine of falsity from evil; and that where this exists, the doctrine of truth would not be admitted, is meant by its being said, "If they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another."

[22] In Luke:

"The master of the house being angry, said to the servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind" (14:21).

By going into the streets and lanes of the city is signified that they should inquire where those are who receive the truths of doctrine; for streets and lanes denote truths of doctrine, as above, and city denotes doctrine. The poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, signify those who are not in truths and goods, but yet desire them. (Who are specifically signified by the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, may be seen [in extracts] from Arcana Coelestia, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 107.)

[23] Again:

A nobleman going away in order to receive for himself a kingdom, gave to his servants ten pounds to trade with; when he returned he commanded the servants to be called. "The first came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. He said unto him, Good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, thou shalt have authority over ten cities. Soon the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. He said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities" (Luke 19:12-19, and the following verses).

By these words, in the spiritual sense, much more is signified than can be expressed in a few words; it only need be remarked, that by cities are not meant cities, but the doctrinals of truth and good; and by having power over them, intelligence and wisdom; by ten much, and by five some. (That ten in the Word signifies much, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 1988, 3107, 4638, 9757; and that five signify some, see n. 4638, 9604.) From these considerations it is now evident that by the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, is signified the doctrine of the new church, which is in the heavens. (This doctrine also has been given in a special small work, entitled The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.)