9280. 'In order that your ox and your ass may rest' means the peace and serenity that external forms of good and truths enjoy at the same time. This is clear from the meaning of 'resting', when it refers to the seventh day or the sabbath, as peace and serenity, as immediately above in 9279; and from the meaning of 'ox' as external good, and of 'ass' as external truth, dealt with in 2781, 9135, 9255.

Beasts were signs of affections and inclinations such as the human being shares in common with them, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 776, 2179, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198, 5913, 8937, 9090, 9135.

Beasts were used in sacrifices in accordance with their spiritual meaning, 1823, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519.

All things existing in the world, in its three kingdoms, were representative of the spiritual and celestial realities of the Lord's kingdom, 1632, 1881, 2758, 2987-3003, 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649, 4939, 5116, 5427, 5428, 5477, 8211.

All things have a correspondence, 2987-3003, 3213-3226, 3337-3352, 3472-3485, 3624-3649, 3745-3750, 3883-3896, 4039-4055, 4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4420, 4523-4533, 4622-4634, 4652-4660, 4791-4806, 4931-4952, 5050-5062, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 8615.

[2] These references have been drawn together to enable it to be seen that not merely all beasts but also all objects in the world have a correspondence, and that in accordance with their correspondences they all represent and serve to mean spiritual and celestial realities, and in the highest sense Divine realities that are the Lord's. And from this the character of the ancient Churches, called representative Churches, may be seen. This character was such that each one of their sacred observances served to represent things that are the Lord's and belong to His kingdom, thus aspects of love to Him and belief in Him. In those times heaven was joined to a member of the Church by means of these observances, since internal aspects were presented in heaven. The Word of the Lord has also been given to the same end, for every detail in it, even to the smallest part of a letter, has a correspondence and spiritual meaning. Through the Word alone therefore is heaven linked to mankind.

[3] No one at the present day knows that this is so. Consequently when the natural man reads the Word and seeks to discover where its Divinity lies, but does not find it in the letter on account of its very ordinary style, he at first begins to disparage it and then to reject the idea that it has been dictated by God and sent down to mankind by way of heaven. The natural man does not know that the Word is Divine by virtue of its spiritual sense, which is not visible in the letter but is nevertheless present within the letter; nor does he know that this sense is presented in heaven when someone on earth reads it devoutly, and that the subject in that sense is the Lord and His kingdom. These are the Divine things which make the Word Divine and through which holiness flows from the Lord by way of heaven, even into the literal sense and into the actual letters. But as long as a person does not know what anything spiritual is he cannot know either what the spiritual sense is, nor thus what correspondence is. And as long as a person loves the world more than heaven, and self more than the Lord, he has no wish to know these things and understand them. Yet they were the source of all intelligence among the ancients, and they are also the source of wisdom among the angels. Hidden mysteries, which numerous diviners have vainly toiled to track down in the Word, lie in those things alone.

5116. 'Its blossom came up' means the state next to regeneration. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blossom' which appears on the tree before the fruit as the state before regeneration. The budding and fruiting of a tree represents, as stated immediately above in 5115, the person's rebirth. Becoming covered with leaves represents the first state, with blossom the second, that is, the one immediately before regeneration, and fruiting the third, which is the actual state of one who has been regenerated. Consequently 'leaves' means the things that belong to intelligence, which are the truths of faith, 885, for these come first in a person's rebirth or regeneration. By 'blossoms' however are meant the things that belong to wisdom, which are the goods of faith, since these come immediately before rebirth or regeneration, while 'fruits' means the things that are matters of life, which are the works of charity, in that these come after rebirth and constitute the actual state of one who is regenerate.

[2] These features of the vegetable kingdom owe their existence to the influx of the spiritual world into it; but people who attribute everything to natural forces and nothing to the Divine are in no way able to believe this. Those however who attribute everything to the Divine and nothing to natural forces have the ability to see that every single thing owes its existence to that influx. Not only that, each individual thing also has a correspondence, and because it has a correspondence it is a representative. In the end such people have the ability to see that the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, thus that the Divine exists within each individual thing, so much so that the whole natural system is a representation of that which is eternal and infinite - eternal because the reproduction of species continues without end, infinite because the multiplication of seeds is unlimited. Such endeavours to reproduce and multiply could not possibly come to exist in each individual thing in the vegetable kingdom if the Divine were not flowing into it unceasingly. This influx is what provides the impulse to reproduce and to multiply; the impulse brings the power to make this a reality, and that power leads to the actual realization of it.

[3] People who attribute everything to natural forces say that such impulses to reproduce and to multiply were introduced into fruits and seeds when things were first created, and because of the power which they have received from those impulses fruits and seeds ever since then are carried spontaneously into such activities. But those people do not take into consideration the fact that continuance in being is constant coming into being, or what is much the same, that reproduction is creation taking place constantly. Nor do they take into consideration the fact that an effect is the continuation of its cause, and that when a cause ceases to exist so does the effect, and consequently that without constant influx from its cause every effect perishes in an instant. Neither do they take into consideration the fact that anything that is not linked to the first being of all, consequently to the Divine, instantly ceases to have any existence; for to have any being, what is posterior must have what is prior existing unceasingly within it.

[4] If those attributing everything to natural forces and little, scarcely anything, to the Divine were to take these facts into consideration they would also be able to acknowledge that every single thing in the natural system represents something akin to it in the spiritual world, and therefore something akin to it in the Lord's kingdom, where the closest representation of the Lord's Divine exists. This is why reference has been made to an influx coming from the spiritual world; but by this is meant an influx from the Lord's Divine coming by way of the spiritual world. The reason adherents to naturalism do not take such facts into consideration is that they are not willing to acknowledge them, since they are immersed in earthly and bodily interests and as a consequence in the life belonging to self-love and love of the world. As a result, so far as things belonging to the spiritual world, that is, to heaven are concerned, the complete reverse of true order exists with them; and to view such matters from within a state in which order is turned around is not possible, since higher things are then seen as lower ones, and lower things as higher ones. This also accounts for the fact that, when persons like these are seen in the next life in the light of heaven, they are seen with their heads pointing downwards and their feet upwards.

[5] Who among these, when he sees blossom on a tree or on anything else that grows, thinks of it as an expression of gladness so to speak that fruit and seeds are now being brought forth? All that such persons see is that blossom comes first and remains until rudimentary forms of the fruit and seeds are formed within it, whereby sap is conveyed into them. If they knew anything about human rebirth or regeneration, or rather if they wanted to know, they would also see in that blossom, because of the similarity there, a representative of a person's state before regeneration. They would see that because of the good which his intelligence and wisdom desires he is in a similar way blooming, that is, he possesses an inner gladness and beauty, because now he is endeavouring to implant these - that is to say, forms of good desired by intelligence and wisdom - in his life; that is, he is endeavouring to bear fruit. Such persons cannot know about the nature of this state because knowledge of what that inner gladness and inner beauty so represented are does not exist at all with people who feel no gladness other than that which accompanies love of the world and no delight other than that connected with self-love. Worldly or selfish feelings of gladness or delight cause inner ones to be seen as the opposite of gladness and delight, so much so that those persons loathe them. In loathing them they also brush them aside as something worthless or as something that has no actual existence. As a consequence they refuse to accept them, and at the same time they refuse to accept that what is spiritual or celestial is really anything at all. This is how the absurd thinking of the present day which is believed to be wisdom comes about.