6465. And was gathered unto his peoples. That this signifies that he was in the goods and truths of the natural which are from him, is evident from what was said above (n. 6451), where are like words (see what was there adduced concerning the coming forth and life of spiritual good, which is “Israel,” in the goods and truths of the lower natural, which are his sons and the twelve tribes). With respect to the coming forth of interior things in exterior, be it further known that all things, not only with man, but also in universal nature, come forth by successive formations, thus posterior things by formations from prior ones. Hence it is that each formation comes forth separate from the others, but still the posterior depends upon the prior, insomuch that it cannot subsist without it; for the posterior is kept in its connection and form by the prior. From this it is also plain that in the posterior are all the prior things in their order; and the case is similar with the modes and forces which proceed from the prior things as from substances. This is the case with the interior and exterior things pertaining to man, and also with those which are of his life.

[2] He who does not conceive the interior and exterior things in man according to such formations, cannot possibly have any idea of the external and the internal man, and of the influx of the one into the other; still less of the coming forth and life of the interior man or spirit, and of its quality when the external, which is bodily, is separated by death. He who conceives of exterior and interior things as being continually more and more pure, and thus cohering by continuity, thus without distinction by formations of posterior things from prior ones, cannot apprehend otherwise than that when the external dies, the internal dies also; for he thinks that they cohere, and by reason of their coherence and continuity, when the one dies the other dies, because the one draws the other with it. These things have been said in order that it may be known that the internal and the external are distinct from each other; and that interior and exterior things succeed in order; and also that all interior things are together in exterior things, or what is the same, all prior things in posterior ones, which subject has been treated of in these verses in the internal sense.