3086. To have any idea at all, even a very general one, of the things contained here in the internal sense, it should be recognized that the whole of this chapter is dealing with Divine truth that was to be joined to Divine Good. That is to say, Divine Good flowed into the natural man, that is, into the facts, cognitions, and matters of doctrine there, for these belong to the natural man insofar as they are in his memory. And by means of that influx, Divine Good brought light and life, and ordered all that was there; for all light, life, and order in the natural man result from influx from the Divine, as anyone may know if he pays the matter any attention. By means of that influx affection comes into being, first of all a general affection for truth, the affection dealt with in these two verses - its origin, in 3077, 3078; its nature, in 3079-3081; and the initial stage of its introduction, in 3082-3084. But the verses that follow directly after them, in the internal sense describe that process further, that is to say, investigation of that truth, and also the separation of the elements received from the mother which had been allied to it first of all, and so on. But I realize that these arcana are too deep to be understood easily, the reason being, as has been stated, that they are not known. Nevertheless since the internal sense describes them, and does so in great detail, what else is to be done but explain them, no matter how much they appear to be beyond human apprehension? At least one may see from this how deep the arcana are within the internal sense of the Word, and also that those arcana are such as to be hardly visible at all in the light of the world which man has during his lifetime, but that they are always seen more clearly and plainly to the extent that he passes from the light of the world into the light of heaven, the light into which he passes after death, and so sees in the light in which blessed and happy souls, that is, angels, dwell.

1176. That 'Cush begot Nimrod' means that those who had cognitions of interior things were the instigators of such worship is clear from what has just been stated. Cognitions of interior things are what they call matters of doctrine, which they also distinguish from ritual forms. For example, their chief point of doctrine is that faith alone saves, but they are not aware of the fact that love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour constitute faith itself, and that the cognitions which they call faith exist for no other purpose than that through them people may receive from the Lord love to Him and love towards the neighbour, and that this is the faith which saves. Those who refer to cognitions alone as faith are the people who beget and instigate the kind of worship described above.