9278. 'Six days you shall do your work' means a state of labour and conflict, when a person is governed by external delights that must be joined to things that are internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'six days' that come before the seventh, as states of labour and conflict, dealt with in 737, 900, 8510, 8888, 8975, the labour and conflict during them being meant by 'the work' that will be done on those days. 'The work' done during the six days and 'the rest' on the seventh day mean the things experienced by a person in his first state and in his second while being regenerated, and also those experienced by him after he has been regenerated. Regarding a person's first and second states while he is being regenerated, see above in 9274; and regarding the things experienced by him after he has been regenerated, 9213. The purpose of these experiences is that external things may be joined to internal ones; for there is an external man, which is also called natural, and there is an internal man, which is called spiritual. The external man is in contact with the world, and the internal with heaven.

[2] Divine order demands that heaven should rule the world with a person and not the world rule heaven with him; for when heaven rules a person, the Lord rules him, but when the world rules a person, the hells rule him. The natural disposition which a person is born with is such that he loves the world and self more than heaven and the Lord; and since this is the opposite of Divine order, an inversion must take place through regeneration. It takes place when the things that belong to heaven and the Lord are loved more than those which belong to the world and self. This is the reason why a person who has been regenerated, and also one who is in heaven, passes through two states that alternate with each other, in one of which external things prevail and in the other internal ones prevail; for by means of this alternation of states the external things are brought into agreement with the internal and at length made subordinate to them.

[3] When the external things prevail the person experiences labour and conflict; for he is immersed in the kind of life which savours of the world and into which the hells enter from every side, unceasingly endeavouring to engage in molestation, indeed to exercise control over the things of heaven with the person. But the Lord unceasingly protects and delivers him. This is the reason for the labour and conflict which are meant by the six days of the week in which work must be done. When however the internal things prevail, then - because the person is in heaven with the Lord - the labour and conflict come to an end, and he enjoys peace and serenity, in which also a joining together takes place. These blessings are what are meant by 'the seventh day'. The more internal aspects of the human being have been created in the image of heaven and the more external in the image of the world, so that the human being is a miniature form of heaven, also of the world, thus a microcosm, as the ancients called him, see 6057. So it is that Divine order demands that the Lord coming by way of heaven should rule the world with a person, and not at all vice versa.

[4] The nature of the labour and conflict experienced by the person when external things prevail may be recognized from this, that his state at that time is such that he is stirred by the world and indifferent towards heaven, unless it appears to him as the world does. But then the light by which he sees is so dim that he can only suppose that external things flow into internal ones, consequently that the eye sees or the ear hears by itself, that objects seen or heard by them are what produce thoughts and shape the understanding part of the mind, and that this gives him the ability to believe in and love God all by himself, and so to see heaven from the world. He cannot be easily led away from this illusion until he has been raised from external things to internal ones, and so to the light of heaven. Then he begins to perceive that things belonging to the world with him, thus those belonging to the body and its senses, see and act by means of influx from heaven, that is, from the Lord coming by way of heaven, and not at all by themselves. This goes to show why it is that a person thinking on the level of the senses supposes that his life is derived entirely from the world and the natural order, that there is no hell nor any heaven, and finally that there is no God. As a consequence he derides everything of the Church so far as he himself is concerned but is all in favour of it so far as the simple are concerned, as the means in addition to laws to keep them in check.

[5] From all this people may know what is meant by a situation in which external things prevail and not at the same time internal ones, and that when external things prevail a person feels indifferent towards what belongs to heaven or what belongs to the Lord and sees it in only dim light. They may also know who exactly in the world are the intelligent and wise, namely those who are governed by the Church's truth and good because they are recipients of wisdom from heaven, and who exactly are the stupid and foolish, namely those who are not governed by the Church's truth or good because the world is their only source of knowledge. And those among them who use worldly knowledge to set themselves firmly against the Church's truth and good are more foolish and stupid than the rest, no matter how much they suppose themselves to excel others in intelligence and wisdom and call people simple if they lead a good life based on the truths taught by doctrine. But such people's simplicity is wisdom in angels' eyes; and after death they are raised by the Lord into angelic wisdom.

[6] The Lord also teaches that this is so, in Matthew,

Therefore I speak in parables, because those who see do not see, and those who hear do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13-14.

In John,

I will send the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. Yet a little while, the world will see Me no longer. John 14:17, 19.

The world's inability to receive the Spirit of truth 'because it neither sees Him nor knows Him' means that it will not acknowledge the Lord with faith in the heart, because external things belonging to the world will obscure [Him]. This being so, is there anyone at the present day who worships Him as the Lord of the whole of heaven and of earth, Matthew 28:18? Yet all who are in heaven, and so with whom internal things prevail, see the Lord as their only God.

8772. 'These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel' means influx in order that truths may be received within good. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking', when done by the Divine, as influx, as in 2951, 5481, 5743, 5797, 6152, 6291, 8128, 8660. The reason why in order that truths may be received within good is meant is that what is said has regard to the children of Israel, by whom the spiritual Church is meant, and the spiritual Church exists among those governed by good that has truths within it. What is implied by good that has truths within it must be stated briefly. Anyone who knows the way in which good is formed from truths is acquainted with the greatest arcana of heaven; for he knows the arcana concerning the way in which a person is formed anew, that is, the way in which heaven or the Lord's kingdom is formed with him. All Christian good or spiritual good holds the truths of faith within it; for that good is given specific quality by the truths of faith. Good that does not receive its specific quality from the truths of faith is not Christian good; instead it is natural good which does not impart eternal life. The reason for this is that in itself natural good holds merely natural life, life that is not unlike that of animals, who are also governed by good when they are harmless ones. But animals cannot receive spiritual life.

[2] From this it is evident that spiritual life is acquired only through the truths of faith. This life - spiritual life - is acquired first by knowing the truths of faith, after that by acknowledging them, and at length by believing them. When they are merely known they are so to speak at the front door; when they are acknowledged they are in the hall; but when they are believed they are in the room. Thus they pass in stages from the outer to the inner parts of the mind. In a person interiorly there exists good which flows in constantly from the Lord; and there it joins itself to truths, turning them into faith, and then into charity. That good draws truths to itself; for it desires them so that through them it may obtain for itself a specific quality, and in this condition manifest itself.

[3] When therefore those truths have been joined to the good, the person has been regenerated; for the standpoint from which he sees what he ought to believe and what he ought to do is no longer truths but good. This is because he has absorbed truths, and these now reside within him; and he has no interest in truths from any source except those which he can see from his good. He is all the time seeing more truths, which are produced from that good like offspring from their parents. These offspring arise from such a marriage of goodness and truth, which is called the heavenly marriage. Truths which are products of the marriage hold good within themselves, because good gives birth to them. They enter into good in a continuous series, enlarging it and perfecting it; and they go on doing so for evermore. All this too goes to show the nature of the two states that a person who is being regenerated passes through, the states spoken of previously in 7992, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, and also in 8516, 8539, 8722.