1144. And of silk and of scarlet, signifies truths and goods from a spiritual origin that have been profaned. This is evident from the signification of "silk," as being truth from a spiritual origin (of which presently); also from the signification of "scarlet," as being good from a spiritual origin (See above, n.1142). This good coincides with truth from a celestial origin, and therefore that, too, is signified by "scarlet" in the Word. But "silk and scarlet" here signify such truths and goods profaned by Babylon, which are profaned when spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor, has been perverted; for those who are in such love of self as the Babylonians are in, can have no love to the neighbor; if they love others it is for the sake of self, so that the end is the man himself and love to the neighbor the means, and the end loves the means so far as the means are serviceable to it; and casts them away when they cease to serve it. This can be seen in all the particulars of their works. Love towards the neighbor in the spiritual sense is the love of uses; and when uses are for the sake of self, it is not a love of uses but a love of self. That "silk" signifies truth from a spiritual origin, can be seen from the passage in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:10, 13) which has been explained just above (n. 1143). "Silk" signifies truth from a spiritual origin because of its gloss, for silk is glossy from light, and "light" signifies the Divine truth, which is also called the spiritual Divine.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] It has been said that the love of self and the love of the world are hell, but the source of those loves shall now be explained. Man was created to love self and the world, to love the neighbor and heaven, and to love the Lord. For this reason when a man is born he first loves himself and the world, and afterwards, so far as he becomes wise, he loves the neighbor and heaven, and as he becomes still wiser he loves the Lord. Such a man is in the Divine order, and is actually led by the Lord, although apparently by himself. But so far as he is not wise he stops in the first degree, which is to love himself and the world; and if he loves the neighbor, heaven, and the Lord, it is for the sake of self before the world. But if he is wholly unwise he loves himself alone, and the world and also the neighbor for the sake of self; while heaven and the Lord he either despises or denies or hates in heart, if not in words. These are the origins of the love of self and of the love of the world, and as these loves are hell, it is evident whence hell is.

[3] When a man has become a hell, he is like a tree cut off or like a tree whose fruits are malignant; or he is like sandy soil in which no seed will take root, or like soil, out of which springs nothing but the thorn that pricks or the nettle that stings. When a man becomes a hell the inner or higher parts of his mind are closed up and the outer and lower are opened. And as the love of self determines all things of the thought and will to itself and immerses them in the body, it inverts and twists back the outer parts of the mind, which, as has been said, are open, and as a consequence these incline and bend and are borne downwards, that is, towards hell.

[4] But since man has still an ability to think, to will, to speak and to do, and this ability is in no case taken away from him, because he was born a man, so having become inverted and no longer receiving any good or any truth from heaven, but only evil and falsity from hell, he acquires a kind of light by confirmations of evil from falsity, and of falsity from evil in order that he may be eminent above others. This he believes to be a rational light, when yet it is an infernal light, and in itself fatuous, producing vision like that of a dream in the night, or a delirious fantasy, by reason of which things that are appear as if they were not, and things that are not appear as if they were. But this will be seen more clearly from a comparison between an angel-man and a devil-man.

1167. And inwrought with gold and precious stone and pearls signifies the appearance in externals of being from spiritual and natural truth and good, as is evident from what has been explained above (n. 1043, 1044), where like words occur.

(Continuation)

The law of the Divine providence, that so far as a man can be withdrawn from evils he does good from the Lord that is good in itself, but so far as he cannot be withdrawn from evils, he does good from himself, and such good has evil in it, may be illustrated by the commandments of the Decalogue. Take for example the commandment not to steal. Those who resist as if from themselves the lust of stealing and thus the lust of gaining wealth dishonestly and unjustly, saying in their hearts that this must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine law, thus contrary to God, and is in itself infernal, thus in itself evil, such after some brief combats are withdrawn from that evil, and are led by the Lord into the good that is called integrity, and into the good that is called justice; and then they begin to think about these goods, and to look upon them from them, to look upon integrity from integrity, and upon justice from justice; and afterwards as they shun and turn away from the evil of this lust, they love the goods, and do them from love and not from compulsion. Such goods are from the Lord, because they are goods that are good in themselves. It is otherwise when the lust of gaining wealth dishonestly and unjustly remains with man; then he cannot act honestly from honesty or justly from justice, thus not from the Lord, but only from self. For he acts honestly and justly only that he may be believed to be honest and just with a view to securing greater gain and honor; these ends are in his goods, and from the end is the whole quality of the good. Such good has evil in it, since its quality is from the end to make gains dishonestly and unjustly. Everyone can see that such good cannot become good in itself until the evil has been removed. It is the same with all the other commandments of the Decalogue.