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以西结书 48:20

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20 你们所献的供地连归城之地,是方的:长二万五肘,宽二万五肘。

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Length

  

'Length' symbolizes the goodness of the church for the same reason that 'breadth' symbolizes truth. This is because 'length' indicates the sweep of heaven from east to west, and 'breadth' means the sweep of heaven from south to north. Angels who dwell in the eastern and western zones in heaven are in the goodness of love, while angels who dwell in the southern and northern zones in heaven are in truths of wisdom. The same is true with the church on earth, for everyone who is in the church's goods and truths from the Word is associated with angels in heaven, and each person dwells with them in the interiors of their mind -- people in the goodness of love in the eastern and western zones of heaven, and people who are in truths of wisdom in the southern and northern zones of heaven. No one is aware of this, but everyone goes to his place after death.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 906)


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Apocalypse Revealed # 906

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906. Its length is as great as its breadth. This symbolically means that goodness and truth in the New Church are united, like essence and form.

The length of the city Jerusalem symbolizes the church's goodness, and its breadth symbolizes the church's truth. That the breadth of a thing symbolizes truth is something we showed from the Word in no. 861 above.

The length of a thing symbolizes goodness, here the goodness of the church, for the same reason that breadth symbolizes truth. The reason is that the sweep of heaven from east to west is meant by length, and the sweep of heaven from south to north by breadth, and angels who dwell in the eastern and western zones in heaven are impelled by the goodness of love, while angels who dwell in the southern and northern zones in heaven are impelled by truths of wisdom, as may be seen in no. 901 above.

[2] It is the same with the church on earth, for everyone impelled by the church's goods and truths from the Word is associated with angels in heaven, and he dwells with them in the interiors of his mind - those impelled by the goodness of love in the eastern and western zones of heaven, and those impelled by truths of wisdom in the southern and northern zones of heaven. No one is aware of this, indeed, but everyone nevertheless goes to his place after death.

This, then, is the reason that length, when describing the church, symbolizes its goodness, and breadth its truth. Obviously length and breadth cannot be used to describe the church, but they can be to describe a city which symbolizes the church.

The symbolic meaning is that goodness and truth in the New Church are united, like essence and form, because we are told that its length is as great as its breadth, and, as we said, its length symbolizes the church's goodness, and its breadth its truth.

They are united like essence and form, because truth gives formal expression to goodness, and goodness is the essence of truth, and the essence and the form are united.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.