1997. 'I will multiply you more and more' means endless fruitfulness of the affection for truth. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'multiplying' as having reference to truth, dealt with in 43, 55, 913, 983. And because it refers to the Lord it means the endless fruitfulness of truth that flows from good, dealt with already in 1940. There are two types of affection - the affection for good and the affection for truth. The affection for good consists in doing good from a love of good, the affection for truth is doing good from a love of truth. At first glance these two types of affection seem to be identical, but they are quite distinct and separate from each other in essence as well as in origin. The affection for good, or doing good from a love of good, belongs strictly to the will, whereas the affection for truth, or doing good from a love of truth, belongs strictly to the understanding; thus these two types of affection are as distinct from each other as will and understanding. The affection for good springs from celestial love, but the affection for truth from spiritual love. The description 'affection for good' cannot be used except in reference to the celestial man, while 'affection for truth' is used in reference to the spiritual man. What the Celestial is and what the celestial man, and what the Spiritual or the spiritual man is, has been adequately shown in Volume One. The Most Ancient Church, which existed before the Flood, was stirred by the affection for good, but the Ancient Church, which existed after the Flood, was stirred by the affection for truth, for the former was a celestial Church, but the latter a spiritual Church. All angels in heaven are either celestial or spiritual. The celestial are stirred by the affection for good, the spiritual by the affection for truth. To the former the Lord appears as the Sun, to the latter however as the Moon, 1529-1531, 1838. The latter affection, that is, the affection for truth, the Lord united to the affection for good, which consists in doing good from a love of good, when He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence. Consequently 'multiplying more and more' means endless fruitfulness of truth deriving from good.

1940. That 'I will multiply your seed greatly' means the fruitfulness of the rational man when it submits itself to the controlling power of the interior man allied to good is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as love and faith, dealt with already in 1025, 1447, 1610. Here however 'multiplying seed' means the fruitfulness within the rational of the celestial things of love when the rational has submitted itself to truth that is interior or Divine. 'Being multiplied' has reference to truths but 'being fruitful' to goods, as is clear from what has been stated and shown already in 43, 55, 913, 983. But as the subject is the Lord, 'being multiplied' means being fruitful for the reason that all truth within His Rational became good and so Divine; and this is what is being referred to here. In man's case it is different - his rational is formed by the Lord from truth or the affection for truth. This affection is in him good from which he acts.

[2] As regards multiplication and fruitfulness within man's rational, this cannot be understood unless one knows about influx, regarding which the following may be said of it in general: Within everybody, as stated already, there is the internal man, the rational man, which is in the middle, and the external man. The internal man is the inmost part of him by virtue of which he is a human being and which makes him distinct and separate from animals, which do not possess that inmost part. The internal man is so to speak the door or entrance for the Lord, that is, for celestial and spiritual things that are the Lord's, to come into a person. What goes on there the individual cannot comprehend since it is entirely above his rational from which he thinks. To this inmost or internal man the rational which appears as the person's own is subordinate. Into this rational by way of that internal man flow heavenly things of love and faith from the Lord; and by way of this rational they flow on into the facts that belong to the external man. But how these things flowing in are received depends on the individual person's state.

[3] Unless the rational is submissive to goods and truths that are the Lord's this rational either stifles, or rejects, or perverts the things that flow in, the more so when they flow into facts in the memory that are derived from sensory evidence. These things when so received are meant by the seed that falls either on the pathway, or over stony ground, or among thorns, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 13:3-7; Mark 4:3-7; Luke 8:5-7. But when the rational is submissive and believes the Lord, that is, His Word, the rational is like the ground or good soil into which the seed falls and bears much fruit.