10256. “香菖蒲” 表对内层真理的感知和情感. 这从 “香菖蒲” 的含义清楚可知, “香菖蒲” 是指对内层真理的感知和情感, 因为 “菖蒲” 表示这真理, 而 “香 (味)” 表示对真理的感知和情感. “菖蒲” 表示真理, 这一点可见于下文; “香 (味)” 表示对它的一种感知和情感 (参看10254节).

此处的内层真理是指存在于内在人中的真理, 这真理在那里是外层. 这与前面所说的 (10254节) 是一致的, 即: 外在人里面有一个内层和一个外层, 内在人里面同样有一个内层和一个外层. 正因如此, 制备膏油要用到四种芳香物质或香料, 就是品质最高的没药, 香肉桂, 香菖蒲和桂皮. “品质最高的没药” 表示对外在人里面的外层真理, 就是感官真理的感知; “香肉桂” 表示那里的内层真理, 就是属世真理; “香菖蒲” 表示内在人里面的外层真理; “桂皮” 表示那里的内层真理. “橄榄油” 表示构成对这些真理的情感和感知的良善本身.

“菖蒲” 表示内层真理, 这一点从圣言中提到它的地方清楚看出来. 然而, 在这些地方, 它不是被称为 “香菖蒲”, 只是被称为 “菖蒲” 或 “上好的菖蒲”, 如在下列经文中, 以赛亚书:

雅各啊, 你并没有呼求我; 以色列啊, 你倒厌烦我. 你没有用银子为我买菖蒲, 也没有用祭物的脂油使我饱足. (以赛亚书 43:22, 24)

以西结书:

但人和雅完人拿纺成的线, 亮铁, 桂皮, 菖蒲兑换你的货物. (以西结书 27:19)

耶利米书:

从示巴出的乳香, 从远地出的上好菖蒲奉来给我有何益呢? (耶利米书 6:20)

在这些经文中, 显然, “菖蒲” 表示教会的某种属性, 以及那里的敬拜; 否则, 经上说他们用银子为耶和华买菖蒲, 或从远地来的上好菖蒲要奉给祂, 还能有其它什么原因吗? 由于所表示的是教会的某种属性, 以及它的敬拜, 故可推知, 所表示的是真理或良善, 因为教会及其敬拜的一切都与它们有关. 但至于所表示的是哪种真理或良善, 是属天的还是属灵的, 是外在人的还是内在人的, 这从当按内义考虑所提到的事物顺序时的内义清楚看出来. 显然, “菖蒲” 表示内层真理.

1008. 'Requiring the soul of man' is avenging profanation. This is clear from what has been stated in the previous verse and in the present one, for the subject is the eating of blood, which means profanation. Few know what profanation is, still less what the penalty for it may be in the next life. Profanation takes many forms. A person who totally denies the truths of faith does not profane them any more than gentiles do who live outside of the Church and outside of all knowledge of them. That person profanes however who does know the truths of faith, and still more one who acknowledges them, bears them on his lips, proclaims them, and persuades others of the truth of them, while at the same time he leads a life of hatred, revenge, cruelty, robbery, and adultery, and confirms such behaviour in himself by many statements which he scrapes together from the Word. He profanes by perverting the truths of faith, and so immerses them in those foul deeds. This is the person who profanes, and these are the things that above all else spell death to a person. That they spell death becomes clear from the fact that in the next life unholy things are completely separated from holy, the unholy being in hell, and the holy in heaven. When this type of person enters the next life, every idea within his thought contains holy things clinging to unholy, as it was during his lifetime. There he is unable to produce one idea of what is holy without the unholy that clings to it being seen clear as daylight; for such perception of another person's ideas exists in the next life. So in every detail of his thinking profanation manifests itself, and because heaven has such a horror of profanation he is inevitably forced down into hell.

[2] The nature of ideas is hardly known to anyone. People imagine that there is nothing complex about them, when in fact every idea within thought contains countless elements variously linked together so as to produce a certain form and consequent picture image of the person, the whole of which is perceived and even seen with the eyes in the next life. Take this merely as an example: When the idea of a place comes to mind - whether of a region, or a city, or a house - the idea and an image of all the things the person has ever done in that place crop up at the same time, and spirits and angels see them all. Or, if the idea of somebody whom he has hated presents itself, the idea of all he has thought, said, and done against that person arises at the same time. The same applies to ideas of all things, but when these present themselves every single detail that he has conceived of and impressed upon himself regarding a particular matter becomes apparent. For instance, if he has been an adulterer, when the idea of marriage crops up, all the muck and filth of adultery, even of thought about it, does so too, likewise all the arguments used to confirm adulterous practices, whether based on the evidence of the senses, or on rational grounds, or on the Word. And the way in which he has adulterated and perverted the truths of the Word crops up too.

[3] Furthermore, the idea of one thing merges into the idea of the next and colours it just as a tiny quantity of black placed in water darkens the whole volume of water. Consequently a spirit is recognized by his ideas, and what is remarkable, each one of his ideas bears his own image or likeness. When such an idea is presented visually it is so ugly that it is horrible to look at. All this makes clear the nature of the state of people who profane holy things, and the image they present in the next life. But people who in simplicity have believed statements made in the Word can never be said to profane holy things, not even if they have believed statements which are not literally true; for what is said in the Word is expressed in accordance with appearances, about which see 589.