Stones in the Bible in general represent truths, or things we know concerning the Lord and what He wants from us and for us in life. This is why the people of Israel built altars of stone, and is also why stoning was a principal form of capital punishment (using truth to destroy falsity, or in the negative sense using falsity to destroy truth). It is also why precious stones are described in such detail on Aaron's breastplate and ephod, and also in the New Jerusalem in Revelation; precious stones represent true ideas directly from the Lord with the various colors showing various forms of love. Stones are not alone in representing truth, of course -- it sometimes seems that almost everything in the Bible represents either true ideas or desires for good. But that makes sense, since our thoughts and our desires together are everything we are in life, and the interplay between them is what life is all about. The many ways they are represented in the Bible reflect the incredible variety in our feelings and thoughts, though we can only distantly understand how those representations work. In the case of stones, in their weight, strength and permanence they tend to represent true ideas that come from a desire for good, the understanding we can have if we are truly good and loving -- and in the highest sense the exalted ideas that come from the Lord's love. Those ideas are ones that are not easily moved or changed, and make wonderful foundations for the things we want to build in our spiritual lives.

1108. That ye become not partakers of her sins, signifies lest ye come into their evils which are from the love of self and from the love of the world. This is evident from the signification of "becoming partakers," as being in reference to sins to come into them, and thus to become guilty of them. Also from the signification of "sins," as being here the evils that spring from the love of self and the love of the world. Such evils are here meant because the Babylonish nation is in those loves, and consequently in the evils that arise from them. That that nation is in such evils is evident, for those of that nation extend their dominion not only over all things of the church but also over heaven; nor are they content with that; they have extended their dominion over the Lord Himself, for they have transferred to themselves His power over the souls of men to save them, which power is the Lord's very Divine power, since it was for this end that the Lord came into the world and glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, that He might thereby save men. They have evidently extended their dominion over the Lord Himself, for having transferred to themselves His Divine power, which is the power to save men, they believe that the Lord will do what they wish, and not that they are to do what the Lord wishes; thus their will rules and the Lord's will serves; in a word, they have drawn down the Lord from His throne, and set themselves upon it, saying in their hearts, like Lucifer:

And thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven, I will ascend above the heights of the cloud, I will become like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14).

That "Lucifer" here means Babylon may be seen above (n. 1029), but the modern Babylon has made herself not merely like the Most High, but even higher. Now as those who are meant by "Babylon" are in the loves of self and of the world above all others in the whole globe, and as all evils spring from these two loves, and the worst evils are from such a love of ruling, there is here an exhortation that they go out or depart from them "lest they become partakers of her sins." (That all evils spring from these two loves, namely, love of self and love of the world, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem n.65-83; and that these loves reign in hell, (Heaven and Hell 551-565)

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] Now as to the agreement of the Athanasian doctrine with this truth, that the Lord's Human is Divine from the Divine that was in Him from conception. That the Lord's Human is Divine appears as if it were not in the Athanasian doctrine, and yet it is, as is evident from these words in the doctrine: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; Who although he be God and Man, yet He is not two but one Christ; One altogether by unity of Person" (others, because they are one Person). For as the reasonable soul and body are one man, so God and Man is one Christ." Now as the soul and body are one man, and thus one Person, and such as the soul is such is the body, it follows that as His soul from the Father was Divine, His body also, which is His Human, is Divine. He took, indeed, a body or a human from the mother, but this He put off in the world and put on a Human from the Father, and this is the Divine Human. It is said in the doctrine, "Equal to the Father as touching the Divine, and inferior to the Father as touching the Human." This, too, agrees with the truth when the human from the mother is meant, as it is here. Again, in the doctrine it is said, "God and Man is one Christ, one not by conversion of the Divine essence into the Human, but by the taking of the Human essence into the Divine. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of Person." This, too, agrees with the truth, since the soul does not change itself into body, nor so mingle itself with body as to become body, but it takes a body to itself. Thus soul and body, although the two are distinct, are still one man, and in respect to the Lord, one Christ, that is, one Man who is God. More will be said on the Lord's Divine Human in what follows.