3189. 'And her maids' means subsidiary affections. This is clear from the meaning of 'a girl' ¹ when Rebekah is called such, as an affection that has innocence within it, dealt with in 3067, 3110; but when those who followed Rebekah to serve her are called 'maids', subsidiary affections are meant. Every affection appears to be a simple or single entity, but in fact it contains countless details within itself, see 3078. All these details are affections grouped together and existing in a form beyond comprehension. They also stand in positions subordinate one to another, for there are some that direct and others that obey. The communities of heaven assume a similar form, indeed heaven as a whole does so; for they are ordered by the Lord according to the Divine form which exists in Himself. The Lord's spiritual kingdom assumes its form in accordance with the ordered arrangement of affections in His Divine Human. This arrangement is the subject in the internal sense of this chapter and of those that follow. But very few of these details are able to be explained intelligibly, being suited to the perception of angels.

Poznámky pod čarou:

The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.