5621. “蜡, 没药” 表内层属世层的良善之真理. 这从 “蜡” 和 “没药” 的含义清楚可知: “蜡”, 即此处的香蜡, 是指良善之真理, 如下文所述; “没药” 也是指源于良善的真理 (参看4748节). 之所以表示内层属世层的良善之真理, 是因为这些香料比乳香和蜂蜜更纯粹, 因此其次被提及. 事实上, 在圣言中, 这类物质是照着次序被列举的. 但此处所说的 “蜡” 不是指普通的蜡, 而是指香蜡, 如苏合香. 原文中所用的词就表示这种蜡, 这个词也表示香料. 由此可见为何这种香蜡表示良善之真理; 因为所有香料闻起来都很香甜, 故在内义上表示源于良善的真理.

这一点从以下事实可以看出来: 在天上, 源于良善的真理和世上的香物一样感觉令人愉快. 而且当天使的感知转化为气味时 (主若乐意, 这种事经常发生), 它们闻起来就像香料和鲜花发出的芳香. 这就是为何乳香和香由芳香物质复合而成, 发挥神圣的功用; 这也是为何芳香物质会与膏油调和在一起. 人若不知道这些做法背后的原因就在于天上的人所感知到的事物, 就会以为这些做法被吩咐, 纯粹是为了使外在敬拜蒙悦纳; 但在这种情况下, 它们里面丝毫没有天堂之物, 或神圣之物, 因而这类宗教习俗没有任何神性事物在里面. 关于这些事, 可参看前面的说明: 乳香和香, 以及用于膏油的芳香物质是属灵和属天事物的代表 (4748节); 信与爱的气场会转化为怡人的气味, 因而是怡人的香甜气息; 而且香味表示源于爱之良善的信之真理 (1514, 1517-1519, 4628节).

5639. 'And Joseph saw Benjamin with them' means the discernment by the celestial of the spiritual that the spiritual intermediary was present with the truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as understanding and discerning, dealt with in 2150, 2807, 3764, 4567, 4723, 5400; from the representation of the ten sons of Jacob - to whom 'with them', that is, the ones whom Joseph saw Benjamin with, refers - as the truths within the natural, dealt with in 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512; and from the representation of 'Benjamin' as the intermediary, dealt with in 5411, 5413, 5443. The reason the expression 'spiritual intermediary' is used here is that the truths which are represented by 'the ten sons of Jacob' had now to be joined to truth from the Divine, which was 'Joseph'; but that joining together does not take place except through an intermediary that is a spiritual one. Therefore immediately after that intermediary had been recognized, Joseph told the man over his house, 'Bring the men to the house, and slaughter and prepare [an animal]; for the men will eat with me at midday', meaning that they would be brought in and joined to him because they were accompanied by the intermediary.

[2] A further brief statement needs to be made about what the spiritual compared with the natural is since the majority living in the Christian world do not know what the spiritual is. They are so ignorant of what it is that when they hear the term they are at a loss, saying to themselves, What the spiritual is, no one knows. Essentially the spiritual existing with a person is his actual affection for what is good and true, loved for its own sake and not for any selfish reason, as well as an affection for what is right and fair, likewise loved for its own sake and not for any selfish reason. When a person has inward feelings of delight and pleasure, and more so if feelings of blessedness and bliss flow from them, they constitute the spiritual present with him, which does not come to him from the natural world but from the spiritual world or heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven. This then is the spiritual which, when it reigns in a person, influences and so to speak gives colour to everything he thinks, wills, or does, and which causes his thoughts and acts of will to partake of what is spiritual, till at length these too become spiritual qualities present with him when he passes from the natural world into the spiritual world. In short, the spiritual consists in an affection stirred by charity and faith, that is, an affection for what is good and true, and in the delight and pleasure, and even more so in the blessedness and bliss that flow from them, which are feelings residing with a person inwardly and making him someone truly Christian.

[3] The majority in the Christian world are ignorant of what the spiritual is for the reason that they make faith, not charity, the essential virtue in the Church. Consequently, since the few who do bother about faith give little if any thought at all to charity or know what charity is, and since therefore they have no knowledge or any perception of the affection characteristic of charity, an affection that is not present in them, they cannot possibly know what the spiritual is. This is especially so at the present day when scarcely any charity exists with anyone, for now is the final period of the Church. But it should be recognized that in a general sense the spiritual means an affection both for what is good and for what is true, which is why heaven is called the spiritual world and the internal sense of the Word is called the spiritual sense. But more specifically what is essentially an affection for good is called the celestial, while that which is essentially an affection for truth is called the spiritual.