4335. In the Word 'those who are grinding' means those within the Church who are led to know the truth by an affection for good, and in the contrary sense those within the Church who are led to know it by an affection for evil, as may be seen from the following places: In Isaiah,

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel; sit on the ground, without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. Take a mill and grind flour; uncover your hair, bare your feet, uncover your thigh, pass through the rivers. Isaiah 47:1-2.

'The daughter of Babel' stands for those among whom externally things give the appearance of being holy and good but interiorly they are unholy and evil, 1182, 1326. 'The daughter of the Chaldeans' stands for those among whom externally things give the appearance of being holy and true, but interiorly they are unholy and false, 1368, 1816. 'Taking a mill and grinding flour' stands for producing teachings out of the truths which they pervert; for 'flour', being the product of wheat or of barley, means truths which are products of good, but in the contrary sense truths which they pervert so as to lead people astray. In Jeremiah,

I will banish from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of mills, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land will be a waste and desolation. Jeremiah 25:10-11.

[2] In John,

No craftsman of any craft will be found in Babylon any more; no sound of a mill will be heard in it any more; and the light of a lamp will not shine in it any more, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will not be heard in it any more. Revelation 18:21-23.

'No sound of a mill will be heard in Babylon any more' means that there will not be any truth. 'The light of the lamp will not shine any more' means that neither will there be any understanding of truth. In Lamentations,

They have ravished women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah. Princes have been hung up by their hands, the faces of the old men have not been honoured. The young men have been led away to grind at the mill, and the boys collapse under the wood. Lamentations 5:11-14.

'The young men have been led away to grind at the mill' stands for being led away to produce falsities by the use of truths, and so by the power of persuasion.

[3] In Moses,

Ah the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from Pharaoh's firstborn seated upon his throne, even to the servant-girl's firstborn who is behind the mill. Exodus 11:5.

'The firstborn of Egypt' stands for truths of faith which have been separated from the good of charity and therefore become falsities, 3325.

'The servant-girl's firstborn who is behind the mill' stands for the affection for such truth from which falsities are obtained. These were the things represented by such historical events.

[4] In the same author,

He shall not take as a pledge the mill or the milling stone, for they are the livelihood ¹ of him who pledges them. Deuteronomy 24:6.

This law was laid down because 'the mill' meant matters of doctrine and 'the milling stone' the truths that were an integral part of them and are called 'the livelihood of him who pledges them'. But for the spiritual meaning which 'mill' and 'milling stone' possess that law would obviously not have been given; nor would it have been said that they were 'his livelihood'.

[5] I have been shown that 'grinding' derives its spiritual meaning from the representatives which manifest themselves in the world of spirits. For I have seen people there who seemed to be grinding; these spirits, I have been told, mean those who gather large numbers of truths together not with any use in view, other than for the sake of their own pleasure. Because truths in that case are devoid of their own affection which originates in good, they do indeed look like truths to external appearance; but because there is no inner substance to them they are sheer fancies. But if evil is present within them truths are used to support that evil, and so are made falsities through that use of them.

Poznámky pod čarou:

215. The proprium is nothing but evil and falsity. This has been made clear to me from the fact that anything spirits at any time have spoken from themselves has been evil and false, and so much so that the moment I was made to realize that it originated in themselves I knew it was false, even though, when they spoke, they were so sure of its being the truth that they were in no doubt about it. The same is true of the person who speaks from himself. Similarly whenever people have started to reason about the things which constituted spiritual and celestial life or about those which comprised faith, I have been allowed to perceive that they doubted, indeed denied, those things; for reasoning about faith amounts to doubting and denying. And because they reason from themselves, that is, from the proprium, they plunge into utter falsities, and therefore into abysmal thick darkness, that is, thick darkness of falsities. At such times the tiniest quibble weighs more heavily than a thousand truths, just as a speck of dust deposited on the pupil of the eye prevents it from seeing the universe and everything it contains. The Lord speaks of these people in Isaiah as follows,

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and in their own sight are intelligent! Isaiah 5:21

And in the same prophet,

Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else besides me. And evil will come upon you, whose origin you do not know, and disaster will befall you, which you will not be able to expiate, and vastation will come upon you suddenly of which you know not. Isaiah 47:10-11.

In Jeremiah,

Every man has been made stupid by knowledge; every metal-caster is put to shame by his statue, for the idol he moulds is a lie, and there is no spirit in those things. Jeremiah 51:17.

'Statue' stands for the falsity which belongs to the proprium, and 'idol' for the evil which belongs to it.