152. Who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire. That this signifies Divine providence from His Divine love, and Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love to and thence in faith towards Him is evident from what was said above (n. 68), where it was shown, that eyes like unto a flame of fire, when said of the Lord, signify His Divine providence from His Divine love. The reason why by this are also denoted Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love to and thence in faith towards Him is, that by eyes, in the Word, when said of man, is signified the understanding of truth, and the understanding of truth is intelligence and wisdom; hence by eyes, when said of the Lord, are signified Divine wisdom and intelligence proceeding from Him, and what proceeds from Him is communicated to angels and to men who are in love to, and thence in faith towards Him. All wisdom and intelligence also, pertaining to angels and men, are not of themselves, but of the Lord with them. This is also well known in the church; for it is there known that all the good of love, and all the truth of faith are from God, and nothing of them from man; and truths interiorly seen and acknowledged, constitute intelligence, and being united with goods interiorly perceived, and thence seen, they constitute wisdom. Hence then it is, that by having his eyes like unto a flame of fire, is also signified the Divine wisdom and intelligence of the Lord communicated to those who are in the goods of love, and thence in faith towards Him.

[2] The reason why eyes signify the understanding is, that all the sight of the eyes with men and angels is therefrom. That all the sight of the eyes is from the understanding, seems like a paradox to those who do not know the interior causes of things, from which effects are manifested in the body. Those who are ignorant of those causes believe simply that the eye sees of itself, that the ear hears of itself, that the tongue tastes of itself, and that the body feels of itself, when, nevertheless, the interior life of man, which is the life of his spirit, this being the life of his understanding and will, or of his thought and affection, feels by the organs of the body the things that are in the world, and thus perceives them naturally. The whole body, with all its sensories, is only an instrument of its soul or spirit. This also is the reason why, when the spirit of man is separated from his body, the latter is altogether without sensation, but the former afterwards sensates as before. (That a man's spirit sees, hears and feels, after it is freed from the body, just as it did before in the body, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 461-469. Concerning the correspondence of the understanding with the sight of the eye, see Arcana Coelestia 4403-4421, 4523-4534.) With beasts also, their interior life, which is also called their soul, sensates in a similar manner by means of the external organs of their body, but with this difference, that a beast does not sensate rationally like man, thus does not think from understanding and will, as man does (as may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 108; and in the work, The Last Judgment 25).

[3] This then is why eye in the Word signifies the understanding of truth or intelligence and wisdom, as may be seen from the following passages:

"Say to this people, hear ye in hearing, but understand not; and see ye in seeing, and know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and smear their eyes, lest they see with their eyes" (Isaiah 6:9, 10; John 12:40).

To smear the eyes lest they see with their eyes, is to darken their understanding lest they should understand.

[4] In the same:

"Jehovah hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, hath he covered" (29:10).

Here closing the eyes, covering the prophets, and the heads and the seers hath He covered denotes the [covering] of the understanding of truth. By prophets are meant those who teach truths; these are also called heads, because the head signifies intelligence; and they are also called seers, from the revelation of Divine truth with them.

[5] In the same:

"The eyes of them that see shall not blink, and the ears of them that hear shall harken" (32:3).

The eyes of them that see denote those who understand truths. In the same:

"Who shutteth his eyes lest they may see evil. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty" (33:15, 17).

To shut the eyes lest they may see evil denotes not to admit evil into the thought; that their eyes should see the king in his beauty denotes that they should understand truth in its own light with pleasantness; for by the king in this passage, is not meant a king, but truth (as may be seen above, n. 31).

[6] In Jeremiah:

"Hear this, O foolish people, who are without heart who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not " (5:21; Ezekiel 12:2).

In Lamentations:

"The crown of our head hath fallen; for this our heart is become faint, and for this our eyes are dim" (5:17).

By the crown of the head is denoted wisdom (as may be seen above, n. 126); the heart being faint denotes that the will of good is no more. (That the heart denotes the will and love, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 95.) The eyes denote the understanding of truth, and are said to grow dim when truth is no more understood.

[7] In Zechariah:

"The punishment of the shepherd deserting the flock, a sword upon his right eye; and his right eye in darkening shall be darkened" (11:17).

By the sword upon the right eye, and the right eye in darkening shall be darkened, is meant that all truth in the understanding should perish by falsity. (That sword denotes the destruction of truth by falsity, may be seen above, n. 131.)

[8] Again:

"The plague wherewith Jehovah will smite all peoples who shall fight against Jerusalem; their eyes shall consume away in their sockets" (14:12).

The peoples who shall fight against Jerusalem denote those who fight against the church: Jerusalem is the church; that their eye should consume away denotes that all intelligence should perish, because they fight from falsities against truths.

[9] Again, in Zechariah:

"I will smite every horse with astonishment, and every horse of the peoples with blindness" (12:4).

The vastation of the church is there treated of; by horse is signified the Intellectual, wherefore by the horse being smitten with astonishment and blindness is denoted the stupidity and blindness of the understanding. (That horse signifies the Intellectual, may be seen in the small work, The White Horse 1-5.)

[10] In David:

"Hear me, O Jehovah, my God! enlighten mine eyes lest I sleep death" (Psalm 13:3).

Here eyes denote the understanding. In Moses:

"Thou shalt not take a gift, for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise" (Deuteronomy 16:19).

To blind the eyes of the wise denotes to prevent them from seeing or understanding the truth.

[11] In Matthew:

"The lamp of the body is the eye; if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness" (6:22, 23; Luke 11:34).

By eye in this passage is not meant eye, but the understanding; by a single eye, the understanding of truth; by an evil eye, the understanding of falsity; darkness denotes falsities, the whole body denotes the whole spirit, for this is wholly of such a quality as the will and the understanding therefrom.

If man's spirit has the understanding of truth from the will of good, it is then an angel of light, but if it has only the understanding of falsity, it is a spirit of darkness. In the above passage is described the reformation of man by the understanding of truth; hence it is clear, that he who knows what the eye signifies, may know the arcanum contained in those words. (That man is reformed by means of truths received in the understanding, may be seen above, 112, 126.)

[12] In Matthew:

"If thy right hand offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is good to enter into life one-eyed, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the gehenna of fire" (5:29; 18:9; Mark 9:47).

By eye in these passages is not meant eye, but the understanding thinking; by the right eye offending, the understanding thinking evil; to pluck it out, and cast it away, denotes not to admit such evil, but to reject it; one-eyed, denotes the understanding not thinking evil, but truth only; for the understanding can think truth: if it thinks evil, it is from the will of evil. The reason why the right eye is mentioned, is, that the right eye signifies the understanding of good, and the left eye the understanding of truth (see Arcana Coelestia 4410, 6923).

[13] In Isaiah:

"In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness" (29:18).

In the same:

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf" (35:5).

In the same:

Again:

"I will give thee for a light of the nations; to open the eyes of the blind, to lead him that is bound out of the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house" (42:6, 7).

Again:

"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears" (43:8).

To open the eyes of the blind is to instruct those who as yet are ignorant of truths, but who, yet, desire them; these are signified by the nations. Similar things are signified by the

Lord's healing the blind (Matthew 9:27-29; 20:30 to the end; 21:14; Mark 8:23, 25; Luke 18:35 to the end; John 9:1-21).

For all the miracles of the Lord involve those things that belong to the church and heaven, and therefore they were all Divine (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 7337, 8364, 9031).

[14] Because the eye signified the understanding, it was commanded among the statutes given to the sons of Israel,

That no one of the seed of Aaron who was blind, or had a blemish in the eye, should approach to offer the sacrifice, nor enter within the veil (Leviticus 21:17-23);

That what was blind should not be offered for a sacrifice (Leviticus 22:22; Mal. 1:8):

hence also it was among the curses,

That a fever should consume the eyes (Leviticus 26:16).

From these considerations it may now be known that, by the eyes of the Son of man which were as a flame of fire is signified the Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love and thence in faith towards the Lord.

[15] That His Divine providence is also hereby signified, is evident from what was shown above (n. 68), to which may be added what was said of the cherubim in Ezekiel, and of the four animals about the throne mentioned in the Apocalypse, by which is also signified the Divine providence, and specifically a guard that the Lord should not be approached except by means of good. In Ezekiel:

"I looked, behold four wheels near the cherubim: their whole flesh, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about" (10:9, 12).

And in the Apocalypse:

"About the throne were four animals full of eyes, before and behind; each one had wings about him, and they were full of eyes within" (4:6, 8).

These four animals also were cherubim, for the description given of them is almost similar to that of the cherubim in Ezekiel. So many eyes are ascribed to them because the Divine providence of the Lord, which is signified by cherubim, is His government of all things in the heavens and in the earths from Divine wisdom; for the Lord from His Divine providence sees all things, disposes all things, and foresees all things. (That by cherubim is signified the Divine providence of the Lord, and specifically a guard that the Lord should not be approached except by means of good, may be seen, n. 9277, 9509, 9673.)

4581. 'And he poured out a drink-offering onto it' means the Divine Good of Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a drink-offering' as the Divine Good of Truth, dealt with below. But first one must say what the good of truth is. The good of truth is that which elsewhere has been called the good of faith, which is love towards the neighbour, or charity. There are two universal kinds of good, the first being that which is called the good of faith, the second that which is referred to as the good of love. The good of faith is the kind of good meant by 'a drink-offering', and the good of love the kind meant by 'oil'. The good of love exists with those whom the Lord brings to what is good by an internal way, while the good of faith exists with those He brings to it by an external way. The good of love exists with members of the celestial Church, and likewise with angels of the inmost or third heaven, but the good of faith with members of the spiritual Church, and likewise with angels of the middle or second heaven. Consequently the first kind of good is called celestial good, whereas the second kind is called spiritual good. The difference between the two is, on the one hand, willing what is good out of a will for good and, on the other, willing what is good out of an understanding of it. The second kind of good therefore - spiritual good or the good of faith, which is the good of truth - is meant by 'a drink-offering'; but the first - celestial good or the good of love - is meant in the internal sense by 'oil'.

[2] Nobody, it is true, can see that such things as these were meant by 'oil' and 'a drink-offering' unless he does so from the internal sense. Yet anyone may see that things of a holy nature were represented by them, for unless those holy things were represented by them what else would pouring out a drink-offering or pouring oil onto a stone pillar be but some ridiculous and idolatrous action? It is like the coronation of a king. What else would the ceremonies performed on that occasion be if they did not mean and imply things of a holy nature - placing the crown on his head; anointing him with oil from a horn, on his forehead and on his wrists; placing a sceptre in his hand, as well as a sword and keys; investing him with a purple robe, and then seating him on a silver throne; and after that, his riding in his regalia on a horse, and later still his being served at table by men of distinction, besides many other ceremonies? Unless these represented things of a holy nature and were themselves holy by virtue of their correspondence with the things of heaven and consequently of the Church, they would be no more than the kind of games that young children play, though on a grander scale, or else like plays that are performed on the stage.

[3] But all those ceremonies trace their origin back to most ancient times when ceremonies were holy by virtue of their representation of things that were holy and of their correspondence with holy things in heaven and consequently in the Church. Even today they are considered holy, though not because people know their spiritual representation and correspondence but through the interpretation so to speak they put on symbols in common use. If however people did know what the crown, oil, horn, sceptre, sword, keys, purple robe, silver throne, riding on a white horse, and eating while men of distinction act as the servers, all represented and to what holy thing each corresponded, they would conceive of those things in an even holier way. But they do not know, and surprisingly do not wish to know; indeed that lack of knowledge is so great that the representatives and the meaningful signs included within such ceremonies and within every part of the Word have been obliterated from people's minds at the present day.

[4] The fact that 'a drink-offering' means the good of truth, or spiritual good, may be seen from the sacrifices in which drink-offerings were used. When sacrifices were offered they were made either from the herd or from the flock, and they were representative of internal worship of the Lord, 922, 923, 1823, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519. To these the minchah and the drink-offering were added. The minchah, which consisted of fine flour mixed with oil, meant celestial good, or what amounted to the same, the good of love - 'the oil' meaning love to the Lord and 'the fine flour' charity towards the neighbour. But the drink-offering, which consisted of wine, meant spiritual good, or what amounted to the same, the good of faith. Both these therefore, the minchah and the drink-offering, have the same meaning as the bread and wine in the Holy Supper.

[5] The addition of a minchah and a drink-offering to a burnt offering or to a sacrifice is clear in Moses,

You shall offer two lambs in their first year, each day continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second you shall offer between the evenings; and a tenth of fine flour mixed with beaten oil, a quarter of a hin, and a drink-offering of a quarter of a hin of wine, for the first lamb; and so also for the second lamb. Exodus 29:38-41.

In the same author,

You shall offer on the day when you wave the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest a lamb without blemish in its first year as a burnt offering to Jehovah, its minchah being two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, and its drink-offering wine, a quarter of a hin. Leviticus 23:12-13, 18.

In the same author,

On the day when the days of Naziriteship are completed he is to offer his gift to Jehovah, sacrifices and also a basket of unleavened [loaves] of fine flour, cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, together with their minchah and their drink-offerings. Numbers 6:13-17.

In the same author,

Upon the burnt offering they shall offer a minchah of a tenth [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil, and wine as the drink-offering, a quarter of a hin - in one way upon the burnt offering of a ram, and in another upon that of a bull. Numbers 15:3-11.

In the same author,

With the continual burnt offering you shall offer a drink-offering, a quarter of a hin for a lamb; in the holy place pour out a drink-offering of wine to Jehovah. Numbers 28:6-7.

Further references to minchahs and drink-offerings in the different kinds of sacrifices are continued in Numbers 28:7-end; 29:1-end.

[6] The meaning that 'minchah and drink-offering' had may be seen in addition from the considerations that love and faith constitute the whole of worship, and that in the Holy Supper 'the bread' - described in the quotations above as fine flour mixed with oil - and 'the wine' mean love and faith, and so the whole of worship, dealt with in 1798, 2165, 2177, 2187, 2343, 2359, 3464, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217.

[7] But when people fell away from the genuine representative kind of worship of the Lord and turned to other gods and poured out drink-offerings to these, 'drink-offerings' came to mean things that were the reverse of charity and faith, namely the evils and falsities that go with the love of the world; as in Isaiah,

You inflamed yourselves among the gods under every green tree. You have also poured out a drink-offering to them, you have brought a minchah. Isaiah 57:5-6.

'Inflaming oneself among the gods' stands for cravings for falsity - 'gods' meaning falsities, 4402 (end), 4544. 'Under every green tree' stands for the trust in all falsities which leads to those cravings, 2722, 4552. 'Pouring out a drink-offering to them' and 'bringing a minchah' stand for the worship of those falsities. In the same prophet,

You who forsake Jehovah, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Gad, and fill a drink-offering for Meni. Isaiah 65:11.

In Jeremiah,

The sons gather pieces of wood, and the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods. Jeremiah 7:18.

[8] In the same prophet,

We will surely do every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we did, we and our fathers, and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 44:17-19.

'The queen of heaven' stands for all falsities, for 'the hosts of heaven' in the genuine sense means truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, and so in the same way do 'king' and 'queen'. 'Queen' accordingly stands for all [falsities] and 'pouring out drink-offerings to her' means worshipping them.

[9] In the same prophet,

The Chaldeans will burn the city, and the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to Baal and poured out drink-offerings to other gods. Jeremiah 32:29.

'The Chaldeans' stands for people whose worship involves falsity. 'Burning the city' stands for destroying and laying waste those whose doctrines teach falsity. Upon the roofs of the houses burning incense to Baal' stands for the worship of what is evil, 'pouring out drink-offerings to other gods' for the worship of what is false.

[10] In Hosea,

They will not dwell in Jehovah's land, but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean. They will not pour libations of wine to Jehovah. Hosea 9:3-4.

'Not dwelling in Jehovah's land' stands for not abiding in the good of love. 'Ephraim will return to Egypt' stands for the Church when its understanding will come to be no more than factual and sensory knowledge. 'In Assyria they will eat what is unclean' stands for impure and profane desires that are the product of reasoning. 'They will not pour libations of wine to Jehovah' stands for no worship based on truth.

[11] In Moses,

It will be said, Where are their gods, the rock in which they trusted, who ate the fat of the sacrifices, [who] drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help them! Deuteronomy 32:37-38.

'Gods' stands for falsities, as above. 'Who ate the fat of the sacrifices' stands for their destruction of the good belonging to worship, '[who] drank the wine of their drink-offering' for their destruction of the truth belonging to it. A reference to 'drink-offerings of blood' also occurs in David,

They will multiply their pains; they have hastened to another, lest I pour out their drink-offerings of blood, and take up their names upon My lips. Psalms 16:4.

By these 'drink-offerings' are meant profanations of truth, for in this case 'blood' means violence done to charity, 374, 1005, and profanation, 1003.