423. Having the seal of the living God, signifies the Divine will. This is evident from the signification of "having the seal" of anyone, as meaning to have command, for a command is confirmed by a seal; therefore "to have the seal of the living God" means to have Divine command. Here Divine command means the Divine will, because "the angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal," signifies Divine love proceeding from the Lord; and whatever goes forth from Divine love is the Divine will. There are also Divine commands that are not from the Divine will, but from sufferance and permission, many of which were given to the sons of Israel, as that it was permitted them to take several wives, and to give bills of divorcement, with other like things. These commands were from permission, given because of the hardness of their hearts (as is evident from the Lord's words in Matthew 19:8; and Mark 10:4, 5); but the commands that are immediately from the Divine love are all of the Divine will; therefore it is said, "the seal of the living God;" for the Lord is called "the living God" from the Divine love, for love is man's very life, and the Divine love is the source of the life of all.

119. This is why in the Word the Lord in respect to love is likened to the sun, and in respect to faith to the moon; also that the "sun" signifies love from the Lord to the Lord, and the "moon" signifies faith from the Lord in the Lord, as in the following passages:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days (Isaiah 30:26).

And when I shall extinguish thee I will cover the heavens and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine. All luminaries of light in the heavens will I make dark over thee, and I will set darkness upon thy land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).

I will darken the sun in his going forth, and the moon shall not make her light to shine (Isaiah 13:10)

The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood (Joel 2:2, 10, 31; 3:15).

The sun became black as sackcloth and hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars fell unto the earth (Revelation 6:12, 13).

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (Matthew 24:29).

And elsewhere. In these passages the "sun" signifies love, and the "moon" faith, and the "stars" knowledges of good and truth. ¹ These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven, when they are no more. That the Lord is seen as a sun in heaven is evident also from His appearance when transfigured before Peter, James, and John,

That His face did shine as the sun (Matthew 17:2).

These disciples thus saw the Lord when they were withdrawn from the body, and were in the light of heaven. It was because of this correspondence that the ancient people, with whom was a representative church, turned the face to the sun in the east when they were in Divine worship; and for the same reason they gave to their temples an eastern aspect.

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