2507. 'Of Sarah his wife' means spiritual truth joined to the celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'Sarah his wife' as intellectual truth joined to Divine Good, or what amounts to the same, spiritual truth joined to the celestial, dealt with in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198. What the spiritual is, and what the celestial, has been stated quite often already, see 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2088. That is called the celestial which consists in good, that is, which consists in love to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbour; and that is called the spiritual which consists in truth, that is, which consists in faith deriving from love and charity.

913. 'Let them spread out into the earth' means the action of the internal man into the external, while 'be fruitful' means increases in good, 'and multiply' increases in truth, and 'over the earth' means with the external man. This is clear from the train of thought and also from what has been stated and shown already about the meaning in the Word of 'being fruitful' as having reference to goods, and of 'multiplying' to truths. That 'the earth' means the external man has in like manner been shown already, so there is no need to pause and confirm these points. Here the subject is the action of the internal man into the external after a person has been regenerated. That is to say, when good starts 'to be fruitful' and truth 'to multiply', the external man is rendered correspondent or obedient. Until then this is not possible because the desires of the body are incompatible with goods, and the illusions of the senses with truths. The former annihilate the love of good, the latter the love of truth. The fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth take place in the external man - the fruitfulness of good in his affections, the multiplication of truth in his memory. The external man is here called 'the earth' into which mankind spreads out and over which they are fruitful and multiply.