6645. 'And Joseph died' means that the situation with the internal part of the Church had now altered. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as the end of the former state and the beginning of the new one, thus the fact that the state of the Church had now altered (for 'dying' means ceasing to be what it has been, see 494, 6587, 6593, as well as meaning the end of the former representation, 3253, 3259, 7276, 6302); and from the representation of Joseph' as the internal part, dealt with in 6177, 6224. The nature of the state that the internal part of the Church passes through now is described in the internal sense of what follows, and so too is the state the external part of it passes through, which is meant by 'his brothers died, and all that generation'.

[2] The Church as it exists with a person goes from time to time through states that are new; for as the person's hold on the truth of faith and the good of charity grows stronger, so he is led into different states. A former state then serves as the foundation for the state that follows it, and so on unceasingly. In this way a person who is a Church, or one who is being regenerated, is being led all the time into things more internal, thus further into heaven. The reason why all this happens is that in His love, which is infinite because it is Divine, the Lord wishes to draw a person all the way to Himself and by doing this to bless him in every way with glory and happiness, as is also plainly evident from the Lord's words in John,

I pray that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You, that they also may be one in Us. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me. Father, I desire that those whom You gave Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory which You have given Me. For I made known to them Your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:20-26.

[3] These words, it is plainly evident, are those of Divine love going out towards all who receive it. The idea becomes additionally clear from the fact that the Lord is seen in the next life as the Sun, from which He fills the whole of heaven with warmth and light. The flame of that Sun is nothing else than Divine love, and the light from it is the holiness radiated by love, which is Divine Truth. This shows how great the Lord's love is. This then is why those who belong to the Church are led by consecutive stages into new states, thus all the time further into heaven, consequently closer to the Lord.

6587. 'And Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying' means a foretelling that the internal of the Church is about to come to an end. This is clear from the meaning of 'Joseph' as the internal, dealt with in 6499, here the internal of the Church since the establishment of the Church by the internal, that is, by the Lord through the internal, has been the subject in what has gone before; and from the meaning of 'dying' as ceasing to be such, dealt with in 494, thus coming to an end. 'Dying' also means the final period of the Church, 2908, 2912, 2917, 2923; and a foretelling regarding that final period is meant by 'Joseph said to his brothers', for in what follows from here to the end of the chapter the subject is a further state of the Church. From all this it is evident that 'Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying' means that the internal of the Church is about to come to an end.

[2] The situation is that for the Church to exist it must be internal and external; for there are those who are in the internal domain of the Church and there are those who are in its external domain, the former being few, but the latter very many. Even so, those with whom the internal Church exists must have the external Church with them also, for the internal of the Church is inseparable from its external; and those with whom the external Church exists must have the internal Church with them also, though with them the internal Church exists in obscurity.

[3] The internal of the Church consists in willing good from the heart and being stirred by an affection for good, while the external of that internal consists in performing such good and doing so in accordance with the truth of faith, the knowledge of which springs from good. But the external of the Church consists in the sacred performance of religious observances and the practice of charitable works as instructed by the Church. From all this it is clear that the internal of the Church is the good of charity in the will. Therefore when this comes to an end the Church itself also comes to an end, for the good of charity is the essential constituent of the Church. After that external worship does, it is true, remain as it was before; yet now it is not worship but ceremony which is preserved because it is the established custom. But such ceremony, which seems to be worship, is like the shell without the nut; for it is the external that remains but does not have anything internal within it. When the Church is like this it is at its end.