6690. 'That He made them houses' means that it - true factual knowledge in the natural - was arranged into a heavenly pattern. This is clear from the meaning of 'house' as the natural mind, dealt with in 4973, 5023, thus the things that compose the natural mind. But because what is said here refers to the midwives, those things are true factual knowledge in the natural, 6687. 'Making them houses' therefore means arranging that knowledge into order, and it is arranged into order when arranged into a heavenly pattern. It is not at all easy to see that these things are meant by 'making them houses' unless one knows the situation with true factual knowledge that belongs to the natural mind. Something must therefore be said briefly about this. Known facts in the natural are arranged into continuous series, one series tying in with another, so that they all hang together according to the varying relationships and close associations they have with one another. They are not unlike families and their generations; for one is born from another, and in that manner they are brought into existence. This explains why things of the mind, which are forms of good and truth, were spoken of by the ancients as 'houses', the form of good that ruled there being called the father, the truth linked to it the mother, and the derivations from them the sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and so on. But the way in which true factual knowledge in the natural is arranged varies from person to person, since the pattern it assumes is imposed on it by the ruling love. That love is at the centre and arranges each fact into position around it. It positions nearest to itself the facts most compatible with it, and the rest are arranged according to their degrees of compatibility. And in this way factual knowledge is given a pattern. If heavenly love rules, then the Lord arranges them all into a heavenly pattern, a pattern like that assumed by heaven itself, thus the pattern assumed by the good of love itself. Such is the pattern into which truths are arranged; and once arranged into it they act in unison with good. At this point when the one is stimulated by the Lord, so is the other; that is to say, when items of belief are stimulated, so are charitable desires, and vice versa. This kind of arrangement is what is meant by the statement that God made the midwives houses.

202. The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial man, was not only forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge, that is, to learn that which comprised faith from sensory evidence and from facts; it was not even allowed 'to touch that tree', that is, even to think from sensory evidence and from facts about anything that was a matter of faith. This was to prevent them slumping from celestial to spiritual life, and in this way going down further still. The life of celestial angels is also the same. Those of them who are more interiorly celestial do not even allow faith to be mentioned or anything whatever which has a spiritual origin. If others mention it they perceive love instead of faith, with a difference known only to themselves. Thus anything that is a matter of faith they derive from love and charity. Still less do they allow themselves to listen to anything of a rational nature concerning faith, and least of all to anything of a factual nature; for they possess from the Lord by way of love a perception of what good and truth are. From perception they know instantly whether something is so or not so. Consequently when any statement about faith is made their response is either That is so, or That is not so, for they are perceiving from the Lord. This is what the Lord's words mean in Matthew,

Let your words be, YES, YES, NO, NO; anything beyond this is from evil. ¹ Matthew 5:37.

The present verse in Genesis says that they were not allowed even to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for if they did touch it, they would be subject to evil, that is, they would consequently die. All the same, celestial angels, like others, discuss various matters among themselves, but they do so in celestial language that is formed by, and derived from, love, a language that is more indescribable than the language of spiritual angels.

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