1153. And fine flour and wheat signifies profaned worship from truths and goods that are from a spiritual origin. This is evident from the signification of "fine flour," as being truth from a spiritual origin (of which presently); also from the signification of "wheat," as being good from a spiritual origin (See n. 374, 375). These also signify worship because the meal offering was composed of them, which was offered with the sacrifices upon the altar the same as the wine and the oil; for the meal offerings were prepared with oil and the drink offerings with wine. And because of the crops of these they had rejoicings in festivals which were instituted to celebrate their harvests. "Fine flour" signifies truth from spiritual good because it is prepared from wheat, which signifies spiritual good, as truth comes from good.

[2] As this truth of the church was signified by "fine flour," it was prescribed what quantity of it should be used in the cakes that were called the meal offerings, which were offered with the sacrifices upon the altar (respecting which see Exodus 29; Leviticus 5 - Leviticus 7, 23; Numbers 18, 28, 29); also the quantity of fine flour in the show bread (Leviticus 23:17; 24:5); for it was commanded that the meal offering that was to be offered on the altar should be prepared from fine flour, and oil and frankincense poured thereon (Leviticus 2:1). Because of this signification of "fine flour," when Abraham talked with the three angels he said to Sarah his wife:

Hasten, knead three measures of flour, of fine flour, and make cakes (Genesis 18:6).

[3] "Fine flour" also signifies the truth of good from a spiritual origin in Ezekiel:

Thou didst eat fine flour, honey, and oil, whence thou didst become exceeding beautiful, and didst prosper even to a kingdom. My bread which I gave thee, fine flour, honey, and oil, with which I fed thee, thou didst offer before idols as an odor of rest (Ezekiel 16:13, 19).

This is said of Jerusalem, which signifies the church as to doctrine, and in that chapter is described what it had been in its beginning and what it became afterwards. "Fine flour and oil" signify truth and good from a spiritual origin, and "honey" good from a natural origin. "Thou didst become exceeding beautiful" signifies to be intelligent and wise; "to prosper even to a kingdom" signifies even to becoming a church, "kingdom" being the church; "to offer these to idols as an odor of rest" signifies the idolatrous worship into which the true worship of the church was afterwards changed.

[4] But "flour" from barley signifies truth from a natural origin, for "barley" signifies natural good, as "wheat" signifies spiritual good. Thus in Isaiah:

Take the millstone and grind flour, make thyself bare (Isaiah 47:2).

This is said of Babylon. "To take a millstone and grind flour" signifies to falsify the truths of the Word, and "to make oneself bare" signifies to adulterate the goods of the Word. In Hosea:

They sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind; he hath no standing corn, the blade shall yield no flour; and if perchance it do, strangers shall devour it (Hosea 8:7).

Here, too, "flour" signifies truth from a natural origin.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[5] 5. The fifth law of the Divine providence is, That from sense and perception in himself man cannot know how good and truth flow in from the Lord, and how evil and falsity flow in from hell; nor can he see how the Divine providence operates in favor of good against evil; if he did he could not act from freedom according to reason as if from himself. It is sufficient for him to know and acknowledge this from the Word and from the doctrine of the church. This is what is meant by the Lord's words in John:

The wind bloweth where it willeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the spirit (John 3:8).

Also by these words in Mark:

The kingdom of God is like a man that casteth seed upon the earth and then sleepeth and riseth night and day; but the seed springeth up and groweth up when he knows it not, for the earth beareth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, at length the full corn in the ear; and when the fruit is produced, he putteth in the sickle because the harvest is at hand (Mark 4:26, 29).

[6] Man does not perceive the operation of the Divine providence within him, because that would take away his freedom, and thus his ability to think as if of himself, and with it every delight of life; thus man would be like an automaton, in which there is no reciprocal, and by that, conjunction; also he would be a slave and not free. The Divine providence moves so secretly that scarcely a trace of it is seen, although it acts upon the most minute things of man's thought and will, which regard his eternal state, chiefly for the reason that the Lord continually wills to impress His love on man, and through it his wisdom, and thus create him into His image. Consequently the operation of the Lord is into man's love and from that into his understanding, and not the reverse. Love with its affections, which are manifold and innumerable, is perceived by man only by a most general feeling, and thus so slightly that there is scarcely anything of it; and yet that man may be reformed and saved he must be led from one affection of love into another according to their connection from order, a thing that no man and even no angel can at all comprehend.

[7] If a man should learn anything of these arcana, he could not be withheld from leading himself; and in this he would be continually led from heaven into hell, while the Lord's leading is continually from hell towards heaven. For from himself man constantly acts against order, while the Lord acts constantly according to order; for man, from the nature derived from his parents, is in the love of self and the love of the world, and consequently perceives from a feeling of delight everything belonging to those loves as good; nevertheless, those loves as ends must be removed; and this is done by the Lord in infinite ways, that appear like a labyrinth even before the angels of the third heaven.

[8] All this makes clear that man would find no help at all in knowing anything about this from sense or perception, but it would do him harm instead, and would destroy him forever. It is sufficient for man to know truths, and by means of truths to know what is good and what is evil, and to acknowledge the Lord and His Divine auspices in every least thing. Then so far as he knows truths, and by means of them what is good and evil, and does what is good as if from himself, so far the Lord leads him from love into wisdom, conjoining love to wisdom and wisdom to love, and making them to be one, because they are one in Himself. These ways by which the Lord leads man may be compared to the vessels through which the blood in man courses and circulates, also the fibers and their foldings within and without the viscera of the body, especially in the brain, through which the animal spirit flows and gives life.

[9] How all these things flow in and flow through, man knows nothing; and yet he lives if only he knows what he needs to do and does it. But the ways by which the Lord leads man are far more complicated and inexplicable, both those by which the Lord leads man through the societies of hell and away from them, and also those by which he leads him through the societies of heaven and interiorly into them. This, therefore, is what is meant by "the wind bloweth where it willeth, and thou knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth" (John 3:8), also by "the seed springeth up and groweth up, the man knoweth not how" (Mark 4:27). Moreover, of what consequence is it for a man to know how seed grows up, provided he knows how to plow and harrow the land, to sow the seed, and when he reaps his harvest to bless God?

200. And I will confess his name before My father and before His angels, signifies that they will be in Divine good and in Divine truth therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "I will confess his name," as being that things are to be in agreement with the quality of their state of life; for "I will confess," when said by the Lord, means to grant that things may be; for what the Lord says or confesses respecting a man or angel who is in the good of love and faith, He grants and provides, since all the good of love and of faith is from Him. Therefore in the Word, "to speak," when predicated of the Lord, signifies to instruct, to illustrate, and to provide (See Arcana Coelestia 5361, 6946, 6951, 7019, 8095, 10234, 10290). That "name" means the quality of the state of life, see above n. 148. This is evident also from the signification of "Father," when it is said by the Lord, as being the Divine good, which is in the Lord and from Him (of which in what follows); and from the signification of "angels," as being Divine truth, which is also from the Lord (of which above, n. 130. From this it is clear that "I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels," signifies that they will be in Divine good and in Divine truth.

[2] "Father," when it is said by the Lord, means the Divine good, which is in the Lord and from the Lord, because the Divine, which was in the Lord from conception, and which was the Esse of His life, to which Divine He united His Human when He was in the world; this He called "His Father." That the Divine that was in Him from conception was what the Lord called "Father," can be clearly seen from His teaching that He is one with the Father. As in John:

I and the Father are one (John 10:30).

In the same:

Believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:38).

In the same:

He that beholdeth Me beholdeth Him that sent Me (John 12:45).

In the same:

If ye had known Me ye would have known My Father also; and from henceforth ye have known Him, and have seen Him. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus saith, Am I so long time with you, and thou dost not know Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The Father that abideth in Me doeth the works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:7-11).

In the same:

If ye had known Me ye would have known My Father also (John 8:19).

In the same:

I am not alone, became the Father is with Me (John 16:32).

[3] Because the Lord is one with the Father He also declares:

That all things of the Father are His, and His are the Father's (John 17:10);

That all things whatsoever that the Father hath are His (John 16:15);

That the Father hath given all things into the hands of the Son (John 3:35; 13:3);

And that all things have been delivered unto Him by the Father; that no one knoweth the Son save the Father, neither doth any one know the Father save the Son (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22).

That no one hath seen the Father except the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18; 6:46).

That the Word was with God, and God was the Word, and the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14).

From this last passage also it is clear that they are one, for it is said, "The Word was with God, and God was the Word." It is plain, too, that the Human of the Lord is also God, for it is said, "And the Word became flesh." Because all things of the Father are also the Lord's, and because He and the Father are one, the Lord when He ascended into heaven said to His disciples:

All power hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18);

by which He taught that men should approach Him alone, because He alone can do all things; as He also said to them before:

Without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

This makes clear how these words are to be understood:

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father but through Me (John 14:6);

namely, that the Father is approached when the Lord is approached.

[4] The Lord so often spoke of the Father as another than Himself, for this, among many reasons, that by "Father," in the internal or spiritual sense, is meant the Divine good, and by "Son," the Divine truth, each in the Lord and from the Lord; for the Word is written by correspondences, and is thus as well for men as for angels. The "Father" therefore is mentioned, that the Lord's Divine good may be perceived by the angels who are in the spiritual sense of the Word; and "Son of God" and "Son of man" are mentioned, that the Divine truth may be perceived (as can be seen from what has been shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that "Father" in the Word signifies good, n. 3703, 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834; that "father" signifies the church in respect to good, thus the good of the church, and "mother" the church in respect to truth, thus the truth of the church, n. 2691, 2717, 3703, 5581, 8897. That the Divine good that was in Him from conception, and which was the Esse of life, from which was His Human, the Lord called "Father," n. 2803, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897; that the Lord is acknowledged as the Father in heaven because they are one, n. 15, 1729, 3690; that the Lord is also called "Father" in the Word, n. 2005; that the Lord also is a Father to those who are being regenerated, since they are receiving new life from Him, and His life, n. 2293, 3690, 6492; that the "Son of God," and the "Son of man," are the Lord in respect to the Divine Human and the proceeding Divine truth, see above, n. 63, 151, 166). Since, then, all who come into heaven must be in good as well as in truth (for no one can be in the one unless he is at the same time in the other, since good is the esse of truth, and truth is the existere of good); and since "the Father" signifies the Divine good, and "angels" the Divine truth, both from the Lord, therefore it is said, "I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." So, too, in the Evangelists:

Everyone who shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 10:32).

Everyone who shall have confessed Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God (Luke 12:8).

[5] Since "Father" signifies Divine good, and "angels" Divine truth, the Lord also says:

When the Son of man shall come in His glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels (Luke 9:26; Matthew 16:27).

Here the Lord calls His glory "the glory of the Father and of the angels," for He says, "in His glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels;" but in another place, "in the glory of the Father with the angels;" and elsewhere, "in His glory with the angels." As in Mark:

When He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).

And in Matthew:

When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him (Matthew 25:31).

It should be added further that if it is accepted as a doctrine and acknowledged, that the Lord is one with the Father, and that His Human is Divine from the Divine in Himself, light will be seen in every particular of the Word; for that which is assumed as doctrine and acknowledged from doctrine is in light when the Word is read; moreover, the Lord, from whom is all light and who has all power, will enlighten those who acknowledge this. But on the other hand, if it is assumed and acknowledged as a doctrine that the Divine of the Father is another Divine than the Lord's, nothing will be seen in light in the Word; since the man who is in that doctrine turns himself from one Divine to the other, and away from the Divine of the Lord which he can see (which is done by thought and faith), to a Divine that he cannot see; for the Lord says:

Ye have neither heard the Father's voice at any time, nor seen His form (John 5:37; also John 1:18);

and to believe in a Divine and love a Divine that cannot be thought of under any form is impossible.