10568. And he said unto Him, If Thy faces go not, do not make us go up from hence. That this signifies that if the Divine be not there, there will not be anything of the church, is evident from the signification of the “faces of Jehovah,” as being the interior Divine things of the church, of worship, and of the Word (of which just above, see n. 10567); and from the signification of “not making us go up hence,” as being that there will not be anything of the church. The reason why this is signified by these words, is that by being “brought into the land of Canaan” is signified the setting up of the church; thus by “not making us go up from hence” is signified that thus there will not be anything of the church. That by being “brought into the land of Canaan” is signified the setting up of the church, may be seen above (n. 10560, 10561); and this is signified for the reason that by “the land of Canaan” in the Word nothing else is understood in heaven but the church, for in heaven all things of the Word are spiritually perceived. Wherefore when mention is made of any land, they think there of such things as are of the church in that land, or with the nation there. The angels of heaven cannot keep the mind in the idea of any land, because the idea of land is material; nor in the idea of any nation, for this idea also is material. Wherefore a spiritual idea at once occurs to them, which idea is about the church. In general a spiritual idea is about the Lord, His kingdom, heaven, the church, love to and faith in the Lord, and about countless things that belong to faith and love, thus that belong to the church. And if you will believe it, it is impossible for any material idea to enter heaven; it is put off at the first threshold. Such is the case with the whole and every part of the Word. From this then it is that by being “brought into the land of Canaan” is signified the setting up of the church; and by “not being brought” as here is signified no setting up of it.

4523. CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE EYE AND OF LIGHT WITH THE GRAND MAN.

Everyone who has any knowledge of air and sound may know that the ear is formed in precise adaptation to the nature of their modifications, thus that in respect to its bodily and material form, the ear corresponds to them; and he who has acquired any knowledge of the ether and light, knows that in respect to its bodily and material form, the eye has been formed so as to correspond to the modifications of these; and that this is so much the case that whatever secret thing has been stored up in the nature of air and of sound is inscribed on the organism of the ear, and whatever secret thing has been stored up in the nature of the ether and of light is inscribed on the organism of the eye.

[2] Consequently he who is skilled in anatomy and also in physics may know by investigation that as regards their bodily and material forms, the organs both of sense and of motion, together with all the viscera, correspond to various things that exist in the nature of the world; and thus that the whole body is an organ composed of the most secret things in the nature of the world, and in accordance with their secret forces of acting and their wonderful modes of flowing. For this reason man was called by the ancients a little world or microcosm.

[3] He who knows this may also know that whatever exists in the world and its nature does not come forth from itself, but from what is prior to itself; and that this prior cannot come forth from itself, but from something prior to itself; and so on even to the First, from whom the things that follow come forth in order. And as they come forth from this, they also subsist from it; for subsistence is a perpetual coming forth. Hence it follows that all things in nature both in general and in particular, down to its last things, have not only come forth from the First, but also subsist from the First; for unless they were perpetually coming forth, and unless there were a continuous nexus, from the First, and thus with the First, they would fall to pieces and perish in an instant.