972. Thou art just, O Lord, who is, and who was. That this signifies the Lord as to Divine good from eternity, is evident from the signification of just, when predicated of the Lord, as denoting Divine good; for just, in the Word, is said of good, and holy of truth (see above n. 204); and from the signification of, who is, and who was, as denoting the Infinite and Eternal. For Is and Was is the same as Jehovah. And the Lord in the Word is called Jehovah from Divine good, and God from Divine truth. And Esse, when said of the Lord, is to be from Himself, which is in Himself; and Existere, when said of Him, is also to exist from Himself and in Himself. And the Existere, in the relative sense, is the Esse in all things of heaven and the church, which is effected by Divine truth. This Esse is meant by eternal; for eternal, when said of the Lord, is understood in heaven apart from any idea of time, thus different from the understanding of it in the world. For eternal in the angelic idea is the state of the Divine Existence, which yet makes one with the Divine Essence, which is Jehovah. The Infinite as to Esse is signified by the "Is" in Jehovah; and the Infinite as to Existere is signified by the "Was" in Jehovah. The Infinite Existere, which also is Eternal, is the proceeding Divine, from which is heaven and everything pertaining to it. The Divine Existere is also the Divine Esse; but it is called Existere with respect to heaven, where it is the all in all.

Continuation concerning the Fifth Precept:-

He who abstains from thefts, understood in a broad sense, in fact, he who shuns them from any other reason than religion and for the sake of life eternal, is not purified from them; for no other reason opens heaven. For the Lord, by means of heaven, removes evils with man, as by this He also removes the hells.

For example, administrators of goods higher and lower, merchants, judges, officers of every kind, and labourers, who abstain from theft, that is from unlawful modes of gain and usury, and also shun them, but only for the sake of reputation, and, consequently, of honour and gain, or for the sake of civil and moral laws, in a word, from any natural love or fear, thus because of external bonds alone, and not because of religion - such persons are still, as to their interior life, full of the desire to thieve and plunder, which also breaks out when external bonds are removed. This is the case with every one after death. Their sincerity and rectitude is merely a mask, disguise, and cunning.

6. I need to explain briefly what "Jerusalem" means in the spiritual meaning of the Word. "Jerusalem" means the essential church, with a focus on its body of teaching. This is because there in the land of Canaan and nowhere else were the Temple and the altar, there and nowhere else were sacrifices offered and consequently was actual worship of God performed. That is why the three annual festivals ¹ were held there, and every male in the whole land was obliged to attend. That is why Jerusalem now, spiritually understood, means the church in regard to its worship or to its body of teaching-which amounts to the same thing, because its worship is defined by its body of teaching and performed as that body of teaching prescribes.

The reason it says "the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven" is that in the spiritual meaning of the Word "a city" means a body of teaching, and "a holy city" means a body of teaching based on divine truth. This is because divine truth is what the Word refers to as "holy. " It says "the New Jerusalem" for much the same reason that it refers to the earth as new. That is, as just noted [§5], "the earth" means the church and Jerusalem means that church in regard to its body of teaching. It is described as coming down from God out of heaven because all the divine truth that gives rise to a body of teaching comes down out of heaven from God.

It is obvious that "Jerusalem" does not mean a city (even though it looked like a city), because it says that its height was the same as its length and breadth, twelve thousand stadia (verse 16); that the measure of its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits, was the measure of a human being, that is, of an angel (verse 17); that it was prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (verse 2); and that later "The angel said, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. ' And he showed me the holy city Jerusalem" (verses 9, 10). It is the church that is called the Lord's bride and wife in the Word, his "bride" before they have been joined together and his "wife" afterward-see Secrets of Heaven 3103, 3105, 3164, 3165, 3207, 7022, 9182.

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