404. (Verse 14) And the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled together. That this signifies that the spiritual man was shut, is plain from the signification of heaven, as denoting the church in general and in particular; for the church is the Lord's heaven on earth; the church also makes one with heaven by conjunction; therefore when heaven and earth are mentioned in the Word, the church internal and external is meant; for the internal of the men of the church is heaven with them, and the external is the world with them. And because by heaven and earth is signified the church internal and external, hence also the internal and external man, or the spiritual and natural man, is signified; for the man is a church in whom is the good of love and faith, therefore from the men in whom the church is, the church in general exists; hence it is clear why by heaven is here meant the internal or spiritual man. It is said the spiritual man, and the spiritual mind is meant, which is the higher or interior mind of man, whereas the lower or exterior mind is called the natural man; and from the signification of, "it departed as a book when it is rolled together," as denoting its being closed; for the spiritual mind, which is, as was said, the higher or interior mind with man, is opened by truths applied to life, thus by goods, whereas it is closed by falsities applied to life, thus by evils, and the closing up is like the rolling together of the scroll of a book. That this is so, was plainly evident by the appearances in the spiritual world, when the Last Judgment was accomplished; for then the mountains and hills there appeared sometimes to be rolled together as the scroll of a book is rolled together, and then they that were upon them were rolled down into hell. The cause of this appearance is based on this circumstance, that the interiors of their minds, through which somewhat of light from heaven flowed in before, were then shut. What takes place in general with many, takes place with every one of a like quality in particular; for in the spiritual world such as is the general, such is the particular (as may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 73). By book is meant a scroll, because in ancient times there were no types and, consequently, no books, such as there are at this day, but there were scrolls of parchment; hence by the books in the Apocalypse are meant scrolls, and by, the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled together, is meant as a scroll rolled together; similarly in Isaiah:

"All the host of the heavens shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a book" (34:4).

4280. In that lower sense the words 'he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh' mean where conjugial love is joined to natural good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the hollow of the thigh' as the place where conjugial love is linked to it, see above in 4277. The reason why the place where it is linked to natural good is meant is that it is the place where the thigh is joined to the feet. 'The feet' in the internal sense means natural good, see 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986.

[2] As regards 'the thigh' meaning conjugial love and 'the feet' natural good, that is one of those realities known in the past which have grown old and died. The Ancient Church, which existed in an age of representatives and meaningful signs, was extremely well acquainted with these meanings, such knowledge of them constituting their intelligence and wisdom. Indeed it constituted the intelligence and wisdom not only of those who belonged to the Church but also of those outside the Church, as becomes clear from the oldest books written by gentiles and from the stories in them which are nowadays called myths - for meaningful signs and representatives spread from the Ancient Church to those gentiles. With these also 'the thighs and loins' meant that which belonged to marriage, and 'the feet' things that were natural. The origin of this meaning of 'the thighs and the feet' lies in the correspondences of all the members, organs, and viscera of the human being with the Grand Man, which - that is to say, such correspondences - are being dealt with now at the ends of chapters. The correspondences with the thigh and the feet will be discussed again further on, where actual experience will be used to corroborate that their meaning is as indicated above.

[3] These things are bound to seem like enigmas at the present day because, as has been stated, that knowledge has grown very old indeed and died. Yet how far that knowledge excels other types of knowledge becomes clear from the consideration that the internal sense of the Word cannot possibly be known without that knowledge, as well as for the reason that the angels present with man perceive the Word according to that sense. It becomes clear also from the consideration that by means of that knowledge man is provided with communication with heaven. And what is unbelievable, the internal man himself does not think in any other way; for when the external man understands the Word according to the letter the internal man does so according to the internal sense, though while living in the body a person is not at all conscious of doing so. This becomes particularly clear from the fact that when anyone enters the next life and becomes an angel he has no need to learn the internal sense but knows it instinctively, so to speak.

[4] What conjugial love is which is meant by 'the thighs' and also by 'the loins', see 995, 1123, 2727-2759; and conjugial love is the basic love of all loves, 686, 3021. Consequently people who have genuine conjugial love in them also have celestial love, which is love to the Lord, and spiritual love, which is charity towards the neighbour. For this reason the expression 'conjugial love' is used to mean not only that love itself but also all celestial and spiritual love. These kinds of love are said to be joined to natural good when the internal man is joined to the external, that is, the spiritual man to the natural - that joining together of them being meant by 'the hollow of the thigh'. The fact that with Jacob and his descendants in general no such conjunction existed will be evident from what follows, for this is the subject dealt with here in the internal historical sense.