9274. And in the seventh year thou shalt let it lie fallow, and shalt release it. That this signifies the second state, when the man of the church is in good, and thus in the tranquility of peace, is evident from the signification of “the seventh year,” or the Sabbath, as being when man is in good, and is led of the Lord by means of good (see n. 8505, 8510, 8890, 8893); from the signification of “letting the land lie fallow,” that is, not sowing it, as being not to be led by truths, as before; and from the signification of “releasing it,” as being to be in the tranquility of peace. (That the Sabbath also was a representative of the state of peace in which there is conjunction, see n. 8494.) For by the lying fallow, and the release or rest of the land, was represented the rest, tranquility, and peace possessed by those who are in good from the Lord. (That there are two states with the man who is being regenerated and becoming a church; namely, the first when he is led by means of the truths of faith to the good of charity; and the second when he is in the good of charity, see n. 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8512, 8513, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8772, 9139, 9224, 9227, 9230)

[2] That there are these two states with the man who is being regenerated and becoming a church, has been heretofore unknown, chiefly for the reason that the man of the church has not made any distinction between truth and good, thus not between faith and charity; and also because he has had no distinct perception of the two faculties of man, which are the understanding and the will; and that the understanding sees truths and goods, and the will is affected with them and loves them. For the same reason he could not know that the first state of the man who is being regenerated is learning truths and seeing them, and that the second state is willing and loving them; and that the things which a man has learned and seen are not appropriated to him until he wills and loves them; for the will is the man himself, and the understanding is his minister. If these things had been known, it might have been known and perceived that the man who is being regenerated is endowed by the Lord with both a new understanding and a new will, and that unless he has been endowed with both, he is not a new man; for the understanding is merely the seeing of the things which the man wills and loves, and thus, as before said, is only a minister. Consequently the first state of the man who is being regenerated is to be led through truths to good, and the second state is to be led by means of good; and when he is in this latter state, the order has been inverted, and he is then led by the Lord; consequently he is then in heaven, and hence in the tranquility of peace.

[3] This state is what is meant by the “seventh day,” and by the “seventh year,” and also by the “jubilee;” that is, by the “Sabbath,” and by the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” and by the resulting rest of the land; according to these words in Moses:

Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather the produce thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of Sabbaths for the land, a Sabbath unto Jehovah; thou shall neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard; that which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap (Leviticus 25:3-5).

And concerning the jubilee:

In the year of the jubilee, ye shall not sow, nor reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor vintage its undressed vines (Leviticus 25:11).

He who knows nothing about these two states must needs be ignorant of many things contained in the Word; for in the Word, especially the prophetic Word, the two states are distinctly described. Nay, without this knowledge, he cannot apprehend the internal sense of the Word, nor even many things which are in its literal sense, as for example the following which the Lord foretold concerning the last time of the present church, which is there called the “consummation of the age” in these passages:

Then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him that is upon the house not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him that is in the field not return back to take his garments (Matthew 24:16-18).

In that day, whosoever shall be upon the house, and his vessels in the house, let him not go down to take them away; and whosoever is in the field let him likewise not return to the things that are behind him. Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:31-32).

(That the second state is here described, and that no one ought to return from that state to the first, see n. 3650-3655, 5895, 5897, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516.)

[4] That these states are distinct from each other is also involved in these words in Moses:

When thou makest a new house, thou shalt make a compass to thy roof. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard nor thy field with mixed seed. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not put on a mixed garment of wool and linen together (Deuteronomy 22:8-11; Leviticus 19:19);

by these words is signified that he who is in the state of truth, that is, in the first state, cannot be in the state of good, that is, in the second state, nor the converse. The reason is that the one state is the inverse of the other; for in the first state the man looks from the world into heaven, but in the second state he looks from heaven into the world; because in the first state truths enter from the world through the intellect into the will, and there become goods, because of love; but in the second state the goods so formed go forth from heaven through the will into the intellect, and there appear in the form of faith. It is this faith which is saving, because it is from the good of love, that is, through the good of love from the Lord; for this faith belongs to charity in form.

5895. Wherein is no plowing and harvest. That this signifies that meanwhile good and the derivative truth will not appear, is evident from the signification of “plowing,” as being preparation by good for receiving truths (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “harvest,” as being truths from good-for harvest is the already ripe crop when it is being gathered, hence “harvest” is the truth which is from good. Before this truth comes into existence, truths indeed appear, but they are truths through which is good, and not truths from good. A man who acts from truth is in truths through which is good, but he who acts from good is in truths which are from good. That “plowing” is said to denote good, is because a “field” which is plowed signifies the church as to good (n. 2971), thus good which is of the church (n. 3310, 3317, 4982). Thus “plowing” is preparation by good for receiving truths; moreover the oxen which were used in plowing signify goods in the natural (n. 2180, 2566, 2781).

[2] As this was the signification of “plowing,” it was forbidden in the representative church “to plow with an ox and an ass together” (Deuteronomy 22:10), which never would have been forbidden except for some reason from within, thus from the spiritual world. For otherwise what harm could there be in their plowing together? and what the worthiness of such a law in the Word? The reason from within, or from the spiritual world, is that “plowing with an ox” signifies good in the natural, and “plowing with an ass” signifies truth therein. (That an “ass” denotes the truth of memory-knowledge, thus truth in the natural, may be seen n. 5492, 5741.) The interior or spiritual reason of this command was that the angels could not have a separate idea of good and truth, but they must be conjoined and make a one; and therefore they were not willing to view such plowing by an ox and an ass. The celestial angels are not even willing to think of truth separate from good, for all the truth with them is in good; thus also to them truth is good. For the same reason it was forbidden “to wear a mixed garment, of wool and linen together” (Deut 22:11), for “wool” signifies good, and “linen” truth.

[3] That “to plow” and also “to harrow,” “to sow” and “to reap,” signify such things as belong to good and its truth, is manifest in Hosea:

I will make Ephraim ride; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall harrow for him; sow for yourselves according to righteousness, reap according to piety; break up for you the fallow ground: and it is time to seek Jehovah, till He come and teach righteousness (Hos. 5:11-12);

“to ride” is predicated of Ephraim because “to ride” is to enjoy understanding; and “Ephraim” is the intellectual of the church; but “to plow” is predicated of Judah because “Judah” is the good of the church.

[4] In Amos:

Shall horses run on the rock? will one plow with oxen? that ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood (Amos 6:12);

“shall horses run on the rock?” denotes shall the truth of faith be understood? for “rock” in the spiritual sense is faith (see preface to Genesis 22); and “horses” are those things which are of the understanding (n. 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321); “will one plow with oxen?” denotes shall he do good? “oxen” being good in the natural (n. 2180, 2566, 2781). That this could not be done is signified by the words which follow: “because ye have turned judgment into gall and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.”

[5] In Luke:

Jesus said, No man putting his hand to the plow, but looking backward, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).

These words signify the same as those which the Lord speaks in Matthew:

He that is upon the house, let him not go down to take anything out of his house; and he that is in the field, let him not return back to take his garments (Matthew 24:17-18).

The sense of these words is: he who is in good shall not betake himself therefrom to the things that belong to the doctrinals of faith (see above, w here these words were unfolded n. 3652). Thus “he who puts his hand to the plow” is he who is in good; “but looking backward” is he who then looks to the doctrinal things of faith, and thus forsakes good. It was on this account that Elijah was displeased that Elisha, who was plowing in the field, when called, asked that he might first kiss his father and mother; for Elijah said, “Go, return; for what have I done to thee?” (1 Kings 19:19-21). In the opposite sense “plowing” signifies the evil which blots out good, thus vastation; as in Jeremiah:

Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be heaps, and the mountain of the house as the lofty places of the forest (Jeremiah 26:18; Mic. 3:12).