616. Verse 9. And I went unto the angel, saying, Give me the little book, signifies the faculty to perceive from the Lord of what quality the Word is. This is evident from the signification of "going to the angel and saying, Give me the little book," as being in the nearest sense to obey the command, because he was told to go and take it; but in a more remote sense, which also is the interior sense, these words mean the faculty to perceive from the Lord of what quality the Word is. It is granted by the Lord to every man to perceive this, but yet no one does perceive it unless he wishes as of himself to perceive it. This ability to reciprocate, man must have in order to receive the faculty to perceive the Word; unless a man wishes and does this as of himself no such faculty can be appropriated to him; since, in order that appropriation may be effected, there must be an active and a reactive; the active is from the Lord, so is the reactive, but the latter appears to be from man; for the Lord Himself gives this reactive, and thence it is from the Lord and not from man; but as man does not know otherwise than that he lives from himself, and consequently that he thinks and wills from himself, so he must needs do this as if it were from what is proper to his own life; and when he so acts, it is then first implanted in him, and conjoined and appropriated to him.
[2] He who believes that Divine verities and goodnesses flow into man apart from such an ability to react or reciprocate, is much deceived, for this would be to let the hands hang down, and to wait for immediate influx; as those think who wholly separate faith from charity, and who say that the goods of charity, which are the goods of life, flow in without any cooperation of man's will, when yet the Lord teaches that He continually stands at the door and knocks, and that man must open the door, and that He enters in to him who opens (Revelation 3:20). In brief, action and reaction constitute all conjunction, and in action and mere passiveness there is no conjunction; for when the agent or active flows into the mere patient or passive, it passes through and is dissipated, for the passive yields and retires; but when the agent or active flows into a passive that is also a reactive, then they join together and the two remain conjoined. Thus it is with the influx of Divine good and Divine truth into man's will or love; for this reason when the Divine flows into the understanding alone it passes through and is dissipated, but when it flows into the will, where what is man's own (proprium) resides, it remains conjoined. From this it can be seen what is involved in its being said, first, "Go, take the little book that is open in the hand of the angel who standeth upon the sea and upon the earth," and then that he "went unto the angel, saying, Give me the little book," and the angel then said, "Take and eat it up," thus the ability to react or reciprocate is described. And from this then it is that these words signify the faculty to receive and perceive from the Lord of what quality the Word is. The reception of the Divine influx is described in like manner elsewhere in the Word.
