4390. 'And built a house for himself means an increase of good from truth within that state. This is clear from the meaning of 'building a house' as providing the external man with intelligence and wisdom, dealt with in 1488. And because intelligence is essentially truth, and wisdom is essentially good, 'building a house' here means an increase of good from truth. 'A house' means good, see 2233, 2234, 3128, 3142, 3652, 3720; and what the good of truth is has been stated above in 4337, 4353 - namely, truth in will and action. This truth is such that it is called good; and conscience which is a product of that good is termed the conscience of truth. This good which springs from truth increases in the measure that a person exercises charity which stems from a desire to do good, and so to the extent and degree that he loves his neighbour.

[2] The reason why good and truth are mentioned so many times in the explanations given is that all things in heaven, and consequently all in the Lord's Church, have a connection with truth and good In general these two include everything that is part of doctrine and everything that is part of life, ideas that are true being part of doctrine and those that are good being part of life. Furthermore the human mind generally does not have any objects of its thought and desire which do not involve truth or good, thought in the understanding involving truth and desire in the will involving good. From this it is evident that truth and good possess a very wide range of meaning and that they have an unimaginable number of derivations. This is why truth and good are mentioned so many times.

3399. The expression 'lying with a wife' means in the internal sense perverting and adulterating truth, here truth that is Divine, because 'a wife' - Rebekah - represents Divine Truth, as shown above. This may be seen from the consideration that instances of lying together, adultery, and prostitution in the Word do not mean anything other than perversions of good and falsifications of truth, as shown in 2466, 2729. The reason why they do so is that all adultery is absolutely contrary to conjugial love, so much so that it is destructive of it; and conjugial love originates in the marriage of good and truth, 2508, 2618, 2727-2759, 3132. Consequently things that are contrary to good and truth, or that destroy them, are in the Word called forms of adultery.

[2] But it should be realized that those who belong to the spiritual Church are not able to adulterate good to such an extent that they profane it, for the reason that they are not able to receive good so far as to perceive it, as those who are celestial do. They are able however to profane truth because they are able to acknowledge it. Yet in the final period of the Church they are not able even to acknowledge truth, because at that time universal disbelief prevails concerning the Lord, concerning life after death, and concerning the internal man. And the disbelief which reigns universally makes it impossible for them to penetrate into the interior truths of faith. That which prevails with everyone universally limits them and keeps them back from entering more deeply into such things, even when the person is unaware of that universal disbelief and also when he supposes that he does believe.

[3] But those who are able to profane good are such as belong to the celestial Church, for they are able to receive it so as to perceive it, as was done by those living before the Flood who have consequently been segregated from everyone else and are kept in a hell separated from the hells of others - regarding which see 1265-1272. The prevention of the occurrence ever again of the profanation of good is meant by the reference to Jehovah expelling man and causing cherubim to dwell away from the east towards the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword turning this way and that to guard the way of the tree of life, Genesis 3:24. On these matters, see 308, 310.