10303. 'And you shall beat some of it very fine' means the arrangement of truths into their own series. This is clear from the meaning of 'beating very small' - when it refers to the frankincense and spices, by which levels of truth are meant - as the arrangement of truths into their own series; for much the same is meant by 'beating' as by 'grinding', though 'grinding' is used in reference to wheat, barley, and spelt, whereas 'beating' is used in reference to oil, frankincense, and spices.

[2] What is meant specifically by 'beating' and 'grinding' no one can know without knowledge of what a person is like when the different kinds of good and truth meant by wheat, barley, flour, fine flour, oil, frankincense, and spices have been arranged into order for the uses they are to serve. For 'grinding' and 'beating' mean arranging them so that they may serve a use. When 'grinding' has reference to different kinds of good, which are meant by 'wheat' or 'barley', it means the way that good is arranged and brought forward in the form of truths, and its application in this form to one use or another. Good furthermore never presents itself within useful services except through truths; for good is arranged into order in the form of truths and in this way acquires specific quality. Unless it has been arranged in the form of truths good has no specific quality; and when it is arranged in the form of truths it is arranged into series, depending on the item under discussion, in accord with the use that item serves. The good enters those items as an affection belonging to love, and this gives rise to what is enjoyable, lovely, and pleasing. Something similar is meant here by 'beating very fine', for 'pure frankincense' means spiritual good, 10296, and the kinds of truth that are arranged into order by the good are the spices stacte, onycha, and galbanum, 10292-10294.

[3] What being arranged into series is must also be stated briefly. Truths are said to have been arranged into series when they have been arranged in accordance with the form of heaven, which consists of angelic communities. The character of that form is clear from the correspondence of all the members, internal organs, and other organs of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. Regarding that correspondence, see in the places referred to in 10030(end). Within those members and organs all the individual parts are arranged into series and into series of series. Fibres and vessels form them, as is well known to those who are acquainted from anatomy with the weavings and interweavings of the more internal constituents of the body. The truths from good present in a person are arranged into similar series.

[4] So it is that a person who has been regenerated is heaven in its smallest form, corresponding to the Grand Man; and that the person's truth and good make him wholly and completely what he is.

A person who has been regenerated is heaven in its smallest form, see in the places referred to 9279.

His truth and his good constitute a person, 10298 above.

The truths with regenerate people have been arranged into series in accord with the arrangement in which angelic communities exist, 5339, 5343, 5530.

The series into which the truths with those who are good have been arranged, and the series into which the falsities with those who are evil have been arranged are meant in the Word by 'sheafs' and 'bundles', as in Leviticus 23:9-15; Psalms 126:6; 129:7; Amos 2:13; Micah 4:12; Jeremiah 9:22; Zechariah 12:6; Matthew 13:30.

[5] When therefore it is evident what 'beating' and 'grinding' mean one can know the meaning in the internal sense of the description stating that the children of Israel ground the manna in mills or beat it in mortars, and made it into cakes, Numbers 11:8. 'The manna' was a sign of celestial and spiritual good, 8464, and 'grinding' and 'beating' arranging it to serve useful purposes; for whatever is mentioned in the Word is a sign of the kinds of realities that exist in heaven and in the Church. Every detail there has an inner meaning. One can also know the meaning when it says that they should not take as a pledge the mill or the milling stone, for anyone who does so takes the [person's] soul as a pledge, Deuteronomy 24:6. 'The mill' and 'the milling stone' mean that which prepares good so that it may be applicable to one use or another. 'Barley' too and 'wheat' mean good, and 'flour' and 'fine flour' truths; and its own truths are the means by which good is applied to any such use, as stated above.

[6] From all this it may be seen what 'mill', 'millstone', and 'sitting at the mill' mean in the following places: In Matthew,

At that time two women will be grinding; one will be taken, the other left. Matthew 24:41.

In the same gospel,

Whoever causes one of these little ones believing in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if an ass's millstone ¹ were hung onto his neck and he were plunged into the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42.

In the Book of Revelation,

A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus will Babylon be thrown down with violence; no sound of a mill will be heard in it any more. Revelation 18:21-22.

In Jeremiah,

I will take away from them the voice of joy, the sound of mills, and the light of the lamp. Jeremiah 25:10.

And in Isaiah,

O daughter of Babel, sit on the ground; without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. Take a mill and grind flour. Isaiah 47:1-2.

Even as 'mill' and 'grinding' in the good sense mean application to good purposes, so in the contrary sense they mean application to evil ones. Consequently when Babel and Chaldea are the subject they mean the application [of what is good and true] in favour of their own loves, which are self-love and love of the world; for with them 'barley' and 'wheat' mean adulterated good, and 'flour' the resulting falsified truth. The profanation of goodness and truth through applying them to those loves is also meant by the action of Moses when he ground up the golden calf into tiny pieces, sprinkled them on the water coming down from Mount Sinai, and made the children of Israel drink it, Exodus 32:20; Deuteronomy 9:21.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3735. 'And clothing to wear' means being joined to Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'clothing' as truth, dealt with in 1073, 2576, Divine Truth here since the Lord is the subject; and from the meaning of 'wearing' as making it one's own and being joined to it. As for the nature of the internal sense of the Word, that becomes clear from these and all other details; that is to say, when the sense of the letter refers to bread and to clothing, and also when it does so within historical narrative, as here in 'If God will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear', the angels present with a person at the time have no thought at all of bread but of the good of love, and in the highest sense, of the Lord's Divine Good. Nor do they have any thought at all of clothing but of truth, and in the highest sense, of the Lord's Divine Truth. To them such things as are referred to in the sense of the letter are simply objects for thought regarding heavenly and Divine matters, for such things are vessels existing in the ultimate degree of order.

[2] So when with holiness of mind a person thinks about bread - for example, when he thinks about the bread in the Holy Supper, or about the daily bread in the Lord's Prayer - that thought which he has about bread serves the angels present with him as an object for thought regarding the good of love which comes from the Lord. For the angels do not take hold of anything at all of the person's actual thought concerning bread, but instead their thought concerns good; for such is the correspondence between the two. It is similar when with holiness of mind a person thinks about clothing. The angels' thought in that case concerns truth. So it is with everything else in the Word. From this the nature of the joining together of heaven and earth by means of the Word becomes clear; that is to say, the joining together is such that when with holiness of mind anyone reads the Word he is joined by means of such correspondences more closely to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord, even though that person's thought is concerned solely with things in the Word which are stated in the sense of the letter. His holiness of mind at that time is the product of the influx of celestial and spiritual thoughts and affections such as exist with angels.

[3] So that such influx might exist and from that influx man might be joined to the Lord, the Lord has instituted the Holy Supper where it is explicitly stated that the Lord is the bread and wine. For the Lord's body means His Divine love, and the reciprocal love in man, love such as exists with celestial angels, while His blood in a similar way means His Divine love, and the reciprocal love in man, but love such as exists with spiritual angels. From this it is evident how much of the Divine there is within every individual part of the Word, though man does not know what that Divine content is or the nature of it. People however who, while in the world, have led a good life enter after death into cognitions and a perception of all those things, for at that time they cast off earthly and worldly things and take to themselves heavenly ones, and have, like angels, spiritual and celestial ideas.