627. 'For all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth ¹ ' means that man's bodily-mindedness destroyed all understanding of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'flesh', dealt with already at verse 3, as in general the whole of mankind, and in particular the bodily-minded man, or everything of a bodily nature; and from the meaning of 'way' as the understanding of truth, or truth itself. The fact that 'way' has reference to the understanding of truth, or to truth itself, becomes clear from the examples already quoted in several places as well as from the following,

Jehovah said, Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people have corrupted themselves. They have suddenly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have cast for themselves a metal image. Deuteronomy 9:11, 16.

This means that they forsook His commandments, which are truths.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Whose eyes have been opened upon all the ways of the sons of man, giving to every man (vir) according to his ways and according to the fruit of his works. Jeremiah 32:19.

'Ways' means life according to the commandments, 'fruit of his works' life based on charity. 'Way' accordingly has reference to truths, which comprise commandments and ordinances, and so do 'son of man' and 'man' (vir), as shown above. Jeremiah 7:3; 17:10, also contain similar usages.

In Hosea,

I will visit upon him his ways, and require him for his works. Hosea 4:9.

In Zechariah,

Return from your evil ways and from your evil works. As Jehovah Zebaoth thought to deal with us for our ways and for our works. Zechariah 1:4, 6.

Similar phrases appear here, yet they are the contrary in meaning to those mentioned before them, since they are 'evil ways' and 'evil works'.

In Jeremiah,

I will give them one heart and one way. Jeremiah 32:39.

'Heart' stands for goods, 'way' for truths. In David,

Make me understand the way of Your commandments. Take from me the way of untruth, and graciously grant me Your law. I have chosen the way of truth. I will run in the way of Your precepts. Psalms 119:26-27, 29-30, 32, 35.

Here 'the way of the commandments and precepts' is called 'the way of truth', and the contrary of this, 'the way of untruth'.

[3] In the same author,

Make Your ways known to me, O Jehovah, teach me Your paths, guide my way in Your truth, and teach me. Psalms 25:4-5.

This in like manner plainly stands for the truth. In Isaiah,

With whom did Jehovah consult, and he instructed Him, and taught Him the path of judgement, and taught Him knowledge, and made Him know the way of understanding? Isaiah 40:14.

This plainly stands for an understanding of truth. In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, Stand upon the highways and look, and ask concerning the paths of old, which is the good way, and go in it. Jeremiah 6:16.

This in like manner stands for an understanding of truth. In Isaiah,

I will lead the blind in a way they do not know; and in paths they do not know I will guide them. Isaiah 42:16.

The expressions way, by-path, pathway, road, and street all have reference to truths because they lead to what is true, as also in Jeremiah,

They have caused them to stumble in their ways, in the pathways of old, going into by-paths and not the highway. Jeremiah 18:15.

Similarly in the Book of Judges,

In the days of Jael pathways ceased to be. And those who went along the paths kept to twisting pathways; the streets in Israel ceased to be. Judges 5:6-7.

Poznámky pod čarou:

50. Of the sensual man, who is the lowest degree natural (spoken of in the doctrine above, n. 45).

The sensual is the ultimate of the life of man, adhering to and inhering in his corporeal (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730). He who judges and concludes concerning everything from the bodily senses, and who believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, saying that these are something, and rejecting all things else, is a sensual man (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks in outmosts, and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His interiors are shut, so that he sees nothing of truth therein (n. 6564, 6844-6845). In a word, he is in gross natural light, and thus perceives nothing which is from the light of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844-6845). Consequently he is interiorly against the things which are of heaven and the church (n. 6201, 6316, 6844-6845, 6948-6949). The learned, who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the church, are sensual (n. 6316).

Sensual men reason sharply and shrewdly, because their thought is so near their speech as to be almost in it, and because they place all intelligence in discourse from the memory alone (n. 195-196, 5700, 10236). But they reason from the fallacies of the senses, with which the common people are captivated (n. 5084, 6948-6949, 7693).

Sensual men are more crafty and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236). The avaricious, adulterers, the voluptuous, and the deceitful especially are sensual (n. 6310). Their interiors are foul and filthy (n. 6201). By means thereof they communicate with the hells (n. 6311). They who are in the hells are sensual in proportion to their depth (n. 4623, 6311). The sphere of infernal spirits conjoins itself with man's sensual from behind (n. 6312). They who reasoned from the sensual, and thereby against the truths of faith, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of knowledge (n. 195-197, 6398, 6949, 10313).

The sensual of man, and the sensual man himself, is further described (n. 10236). And the extension of the sensual with man (n. 9731).

Sensual things ought to be in the last place, not in the first, and with a wise and intelligent man they are in the last place and subject to the interiors; but with an unwise man they are in the first place, and have dominion; these are they who are properly called sensual (n. 5077, 5125, 5128, 7645). If sensual things are in the last place, and are subject to the interiors, a way is opened through them to the understanding, and truths are refined by a kind of extraction (n. 5580).

The sensual things of man stand nearest to the world, and admit things that flow from the world, and as it were sift them (n. 9726). The external or natural man communicates with the world by means of those sensuals, and with heaven by means of rationals (n. 4009). Thus sensual things administer those things which are serviceable to the interiors of man (n. 5077, 5081). There are sensual things ministering to the intellectual part, and likewise to the will part (n. 5077).

Unless the thought is elevated from sensual things, man possesses but little wisdom (n. 5089). A wise man thinks above the sensual (n. 5089, 5094). Man, when his thought is elevated above sensual things, comes into a clearer light [lumen], and at length into heavenly light [lux] (n. 6183, 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922). Elevation above sensual things, and withdrawal from them, was known to the ancients (n. 6313). Man with his spirit may see the things which are in the spiritual world, if he can be withdrawn from the sensual things of the body, and elevated by the Lord into the light of heaven (n. 4622). The reason is, because the body does not feel, but the spirit in the body; and so far as the spirit perceives in the body, so far is the perception gross and obscure, consequently in darkness; but so far as not in the body, so far is the perception clear and in the light (n. 4622, 6614, 6622).

The ultimate of the understanding is the sensual scientific, and the ultimate of the will the sensual delight, concerning which see (n. 9996). What is the difference between the sensual things that are common with beasts, and those that are not common with them (n. 10236). There are sensual men who are not evil, inasmuch as their interiors are not so much closed; concerning whose state in another life (see n. 6311).