287. Because these are the origins of peace, the Lord is called the Prince of Peace and says that peace comes from him and that peace is in him. So too angels are called angels of peace and heaven the dwelling place of peace, as in the following passages:

A child is born to us, a son is given to us, on whose shoulder the government [shall rest], and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace; of the increase of government and peace there shall be no end. (Isaiah 9:5-6 9:6-7)

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives do I give to you." (John 14:27)

I have told you these things so that you might have peace in me. (John 16:33)

May Jehovah lift his face to you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:26)

The angels of peace weep bitterly, the highways are ruined. (Isaiah 33:7-8)

The work of justice will be peace, and my people will live in a dwelling place of peace. (Isaiah 32:17-18)

[2] We may also gather that "peace" in the Word means divine and heavenly peace from other passages where it is mentioned, as for example in Isaiah 52:7; 54:10; 59:8; Jeremiah 16:5; 25:37; 29:11; Haggai 2:9; Zechariah 8:12; Psalms 37:37; and elsewhere.

Because peace means the Lord and heaven and also heavenly joy and the delight of good, greetings in ancient times were - and consequently still are-"Peace be with you." The Lord confirmed this, too, when he sent out his disciples and told them, "When you enter a house, first say 'Peace be upon this house'; and if a child of peace is there, let your peace rest upon it" (Luke 10:5-6). Further, the Lord himself said "Peace be with you" when he appeared to the apostles (John 20:19, 21, 26).

[3] A state of peace is also meant in the Word when it says that "Jehovah smelled an odor of quietness," as in Exodus 29:18, 25, 41; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17, 2:2, 9, 6:8, 14 6:15, 21?; Leviticus 23:12-13, 18; Numbers 15:3, 7, 13, 28:6, 8, 13, 29:2, 6, 8, 13, 36. "An odor of quietness," in the heavenly sense, means a perception of peace. ¹

Since peace means the oneness of the Divine itself and the divine human in the Lord and the union of the Lord with heaven and with the church and with everyone in heaven, and also with everyone in the church who accepts him, the Sabbath was instituted as a reminder of these matters and was named for quietness and peace. It became the holiest symbol of the church, which is why the Lord called himself the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:27-28; Luke 6:5). ²

Poznámky pod čarou:

3769. 'And there was a large stone over the mouth of the well' means that it, that is to say, the Word, was closed up. This becomes clear without explanation. The Word is said to be closed up when it is understood purely according to the sense of the letter and everything there is taken for doctrine. It is even more closed up when those things are acknowledged as doctrine which show favour to the desires that go with self-love and love of the world, for these especially roll the large stone over the mouth of the well, that is, they close the Word up. In this case people neither know nor wish to know that any interior sense exists within the Word. Yet they can see that the Word has an interior sense from the many places where the interior sense is used to explain the literal, and also from the generally accepted teachings within the Church which, by means of various explanations, are brought to bear on the literal sense.

[2] What is meant by the Word's being closed up becomes particularly clear from the Jews who explain every single thing literally, and as a consequence believe that they have been chosen in preference to everybody else in all the world, and that the Messiah is coming who will lead them into the land of Canaan and will exalt them above all nations and peoples of the world. For the Jews are governed by loves of an earthly and bodily nature, which are such that they close the Word altogether so far as interior teachings are concerned. What is more, they do not even know whether any heavenly kingdom exists, whether they are going to live after death, what the internal man is, or even the existence of anything spiritual, let alone that the Messiah has come to save souls. The fact that the Word is in their case closed up may also be seen quite clearly from the consideration that although they live among Christians they nevertheless accept nothing whatever of Christian teaching, in accordance with the following words in Isaiah,

Say to this people, Hearing hear, and do not understand; and seeing see, and do not comprehend. Make the hearts of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes. And I said, How long, O Lord? And He said, Until cities have been laid waste till no inhabitant [is left], and houses till no man [is left], and the land has been laid waste as a desolation. Isaiah 6:9-11; Matthew 13:14-15; John 12:40-41.

[3] To the extent that someone is under the influence of self-love and love of the world, and of the desires that go with these loves, the Word is to him closed up. For those loves have self as the end in view, an end which fosters natural light but extinguishes heavenly light. As a result people see clearly the things that belong to self and the world but nothing whatever of those that belong to the Lord and to His kingdom. When this is so they may indeed read the Word, but their end in view is the increase of personal position and wealth, or that they may be seen by others; or else they read it because it is the done thing and therefore merely from force of habit, or they read it as a religious duty, but without any amendment of life in view. To these people the Word has in different ways become closed up, for some so closed that they do not wish to know anything at all apart from that which their own teachings - whatever these may be - declare.

[4] If anyone were to say, for example, that the power of opening and of shutting heaven has not been granted to Peter but to faith rooted in love, which faith is meant by Peter's keys, they would never acknowledge it because self-love and love of the world stand in the way. Or if anyone were to say that the saints ought not to be worshipped but the Lord alone, they would not accept that either. Nor would they believe it if someone were to say that the bread and wine in the Holy Supper mean the Lord's love towards the whole human race and man's love for the Lord in return. And if anyone were to say that faith - other than the good of faith, which is charity - does not achieve anything, they would give a completely contrary explanation. And so it would be with everything else. People like these can see nothing at all of the truth contained in the Word and do not wish to see it. Instead they adhere rigidly to their own doctrinal opinions. They do not even wish to hear of the existence of the internal sense in which the holiness and the glory of the Word reside. Indeed when they hear about the existence of it they are revolted because of their detestation of the mere mention of it. So the Word has been closed up. Yet the Word is such that it is open right into heaven, and through heaven towards the Lord, and is closed only in relation to man, that is, insofar as he is subject to the evils of self-love and love of the world where the ends in view of his life are concerned, and is subject to false assumptions resulting from those evils. From this one may see what is meant by 'a large stone over the mouth of the well'.