366. That they should slay one another, signifies the falsification or extinction of truths. This is evident from the signification of "slaying," as meaning the extinction of truths; for "to slay" in the Word signifies to slay spiritually, that is, to slay the spiritual part of a man or his soul, which is to extinguish truths. It also means to falsify, because when truths are falsified they are also extinguished; for falsification produces a different understanding of truths, and truth is true to everyone according to his understanding of it; for the love and principle that rule in man draw and apply all things to themselves, even truths themselves; consequently when the love is evil, or the principle is false, then truths are infected with the evil of the love or the falsity of the principle, and thus are extinguished. This, therefore, is what is here signified by "they should slay one another." That this takes place when there is no good with man, and especially when there is no good in the doctrine of his church, is evident from the preceding words, where it is said, "When he had opened the second seal there went forth a red horse; and to him that sat upon him it was given to take peace from the earth;" which signifies a second state of the church when the understanding of the Word is destroyed in respect to good, which is the source of dissensions in the church (of which see above, n. 361, 364, 365).

[2] That the understanding of the Word, or what is the same, the understanding of the truth, is destroyed when there is no good with man, that is, when there is no love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor, may be seen above n. 365; for good with man, or what is the same, love with him, is the fire of his life, and truth with him, or the faith of truth, is the light therefrom; consequently such as the good is, or such as the love is in man, such is truth, or such the faith of truth in him. From this it can be seen that when evil or an evil love is with man there can be no truth or faith of truth with him; for the light that goes forth from such fire is the light that those have who are in hell, which is a fatuous light like the light from burning coals, which light, when light from heaven flows in, is turned into mere thick darkness. Such also is the light that with the evil, when they reason against the things of the church, is called natural light [lumen].

[3] That they would falsify and thereby extinguish truths is meant also by the Lord's words in Matthew:

Jesus said to the disciples, The brother shall deliver up the brother, the father the son; children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death (Matthew 10:21).

And in Luke:

Ye shall be delivered up by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death (Luke 21:16).

"Parents," "brethren," "children," ["kinsfolk, "] and "friends," do not mean here parents, brethren, children, kinsfolk, friends, nor do "disciples" mean disciples, but the goods and truths of the church, also evils and falsities; it is also meant that evils would extinguish goods and falsities truths. (That such is the signification of these words, see Arcana Coelestia 10490.)

5126. 'And you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand' means in order that they might consequently serve the interior natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'putting the cup to drink' as making one's own, dealt with above in 5120, besides the obvious meaning of serving; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the interior natural, dealt with in 5080, 5095, 5118. For there is an interior natural and there is an exterior natural, the exterior natural being made up of impressions which enter in directly from the world by way of the senses into the natural mind, that is to say, they enter the memory belonging to that mind and therefore enter the place where mental images are formed, see 5118.

[2] So that people can know what the exterior natural and what the interior natural are like, which make up the exterior man, and from this can know what the rational is which makes up the interior man, a brief reference to them must be made here. From infancy to childhood a person relies solely on his senses, for during those years he is receiving, through his bodily senses, nothing but earthly, bodily, and worldly impressions, which during those years are also the raw material from which he forms his ideas and thoughts. Communication with the interior man has not yet been opened up, except insofar as he is able to take in and hold on to those impressions. The innocence which exists in him at this time is solely external, not internal, because true innocence resides within wisdom. But the Lord uses this - his external innocence - to bring order into what enters through the senses. If innocence did not come to him from the Lord in that first period no foundation would ever be laid down on which the intellectual or rational degree of the mind proper to a human being could be established.

[3] From childhood to early youth communication is opened up with the interior natural, by the person's learning about what is decent, public-spirited, and honourable, both through what parents and teachers tell him and through his own efforts to find out about such matters. During early youth to later youth however communication is opened up between the natural and the rational, by his learning about what is true and what is good so far as his public life and private life are concerned, and above all about what is good and what is true so far as his spiritual life is concerned, all of which he learns about through listening to and reading the Word. Indeed insofar as he uses truths to immerse himself in good deeds, that is, insofar as he puts the truths he learns into practice, the rational is opened up; but insofar as he does not use truths to immerse himself in good deeds, or does not put truths into practice, the rational is not opened up. Nevertheless the things he has come to know remain within the natural; that is to say, they remain in his memory, left on the doorstep so to speak outside the house.

[4] But insofar - during these years and the next period of life - as he impairs the things he knows, refuses to accept them, and acts contrary to them, that is, insofar as he believes falsities and practises evils instead, the rational is closed, as is the interior natural also. But in spite of that, the Lord's Divine Providence enables communication to remain open enough to give him the ability to understand the good or truth he knows about. But he does not make these his own unless he truly repents and for a long while after that wrestles with falsities and evils. With people however who allow themselves to be regenerated the opposite takes place; for gradually, that is, in consecutive stages, their rational is opened up, the interior natural then becoming ranged in order beneath it, and the exterior natural beneath that. This occurs especially in the period from late youth to adulthood; it also continues in progressive stages to the final period of those regenerating people's lives, and after that in heaven for ever. From all this one may know what constitutes a person's interior natural and what his exterior natural.