2173. That “Sarah” is here the Lord as to truth, is evident from the representation of Sarah, as being intellectual truth adjoined to good; here, as being rational truth, for the same reason as just now stated in regard to Abraham. (That Sarah represents truth may be seen above, n. 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065). In the historicals of the Word good and truth cannot be represented otherwise than by a marriage, for this is really the case with them, for there is a Divine marriage between things celestial and spiritual, or what is the same, between those which are of love and those which are of faith, or again what is the same, between those of the will and those of the understanding. The former are of good, the latter are of truth. There is such a marriage in the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens; such also in the Lord’s kingdom on the earth (that is, in the church); such a marriage in every man, in every single thing of him, nay, in the veriest singulars of all. That which is not in such a marriage does not live. Nay, from that Divine marriage there is such a marriage in universal nature, and in every particular of it, but under other form and appearance, otherwise nothing whatever would there subsist. Because there is such marriage in everything, therefore with the Prophets every matter is expressed in a twofold manner, especially in Isaiah-one expression referring to what is celestial, or to good, and the other to what is spiritual, or to truth (see n. 683, 793, 801). That in everything there is a resemblance of a marriage, may be seen above (n. 718, 747, 917, 1432). Hence it is that the Lord’s good is represented by Abraham, and His truth by Sarah.

1901. It may be that I shall be built up by her. That this signifies that in this way the rational could be born, may be seen from the signification of being “built up,” when predicated of generation, and thus without explication. By “Sarai,” as has been said, is signified intellectual truth which has been adjoined as a wife to good. Intellectual truth, which appertains to the inmost, is altogether barren, or like a childless mother, when as yet there is not any rational into which and through which it may inflow; for without the rational as a medium intellectual truth cannot inflow with any truth into the exterior man, as may be seen from the case of little children, who can know nothing whatever of truth until they have been imbued with knowledges; but, as before said, the better and more perfectly they are imbued with knowledges, so much the better and more perfectly can intellectual truth which appertains to the inmost, or to good, be communicated.

[2] This intellectual truth, represented by Sarai, is the spiritual itself which flows in through heaven, and this by an internal way, and with every man; and it continually meets the knowledges that are insinuated by means of the things of sense, and are implanted in the memory. Man is not aware of this intellectual truth because it is too pure to be perceived by a general idea. It is like a kind of light that illuminates the mind, and confers the faculty of knowing, thinking, and understanding. As the rational cannot come into existence except by means of the influx of the intellectual truth represented by Sarai, it stands related to this truth as a son. When the rational is being formed from truths that have been adjoined to good, and still more when it is being formed from the goods from which are truths, it is then a genuine son. Before this it is indeed acknowledged as a son, yet not as a genuine son, but as coming from a handmaid; and still it is adopted, which is the reason why it is here said that she might be built up by her.