2967. 'Current with the merchant' means in conformity with their state. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a merchant', and, from this, of 'current with the merchant'. In the Word 'a merchant' means people who possess cognitions of good and truth, while 'merchandise' means those cognitions themselves. Consequently 'silver current with the merchant' means truth to the extent that it can be received, or what amounts to the same, in conformity with each individual's state and ability. For the embodiment of some arcanum within this added phrase may be seen by anyone. The specific meaning of 'a merchant' and of 'merchandise' is dealt with below, but the general meaning of the whole phrase is this: Everyone who is being reformed and regenerated has charity and faith conferred on him from the Lord; but each individual receives these according to his ability and his state. For the evils and falsities which a person absorbs from earliest childhood make it impossible for one individual to receive what is given in the same way as any other receives it. Those evils and falsities must first undergo vastation before a person can be regenerated. The amount of celestial and spiritual life left following vastation determines how far what is then left can be enlightened with truth and enriched with good.

[2] It is the remnants, that is, the goods and truths from the Lord stored away in a person, that receive life at that time. The goods and truths acquired in the period from early childhood to when reformation takes place are with one person more, with another less. They are preserved in his internal man, and cannot be brought out until his external man has been brought into a state of correspondence with the internal, which is effected chiefly by means of temptations, and by many kinds of vastation. Indeed until bodily desires which are contrary to goods and truths - as is the nature of desires which constitute self-love and love of the world - become dormant, celestial and spiritual desires that belong to the affection for good and truth cannot enter in. This is the reason why each individual is reformed in conformity with his state and ability. This is also the Lord's teaching in the parable about a man who went away on a journey,

He called his servants and delivered to them his riches. To the first he gave five talents, to the second two, and to the third one, to each according to his own ability. He who received the five talents traded with them and earned five talents more. So too he who received the two earned two more. Matthew 25:14-17, and following verses.

The same teaching also occurs in the parable about the ten servants to whom he gave ten pounds to trade with, Luke 19:12-13, and following verses.

[3] As regards 'a merchant' meaning those who possess cognitions of good and truth and 'merchandise' meaning those cognitions themselves, this is clear from the places which have just been quoted from Matthew and Luke, and also from the following: In Ezekiel,

Say to Tyre, one that dwells upon the entrances of the sea, she that is the trader of the peoples to many islands: Tarshish was your merchant because of the abundance of all riches; silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged for your wares. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traders in the souls of men - and they gave vessels of bronze for your commerce. The sons of Dedan were your traders, many islands were the merchandise of your hand. Syria was your merchant in the multitude of your handyworks; Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders. Wheat of minnith and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm, they exchanged for your commerce. Damascus was your merchant in the multitude of your handyworks because of the multitude of all riches - in the wine of Helbon and the wool of Zahar. And Dan and Javan exchanged yarn for your wares. Dedan was your trader in chariot-cloaks. ¹ The Arab and all the princes of Kedar were the merchants of your hand in lambs, in rams and goats; in these they were your merchants. The traders of Sheba and Raamah, they were your traders in the best of every spice. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the traders of Shebah; Asshur, Chilmad, was your trader. These were your traders in choice wares. Ezekiel 27:3, 12-13, 15-24.

These verses refer to Tyre, by which - as may be seen in 1201 and as is evident from all the specific details contained in these verses - cognitions of truth are meant. The tracings and merchandise, and also the wares, mentioned there have no other meaning, for which reason Tyre is described as 'one that dwells upon the entrances of the sea' - 'waters' meaning cognitions and 'the sea' a gathering together of these, 28. Tyre is also called 'the trader of the peoples to many islands', that is, extending even to those whose worship is more remote - 'islands' meaning more remote forms of worship, see 1158. What Tarshish means is explained in 1156, while 'silver, iron, tin, and lead' from there means truths in their own order even to the last, which are sensory truths - what 'silver' means being explained in 1551, 2048, 'iron' in 425, 426.

What 'Javan, Tubal and Meshech' means is explained in 1151-1153, 1155, while 'the souls of men' and 'vessels of bronze' from those places mean things that have to do with natural life - 'soul' meaning all life that comes from the Lord, 1000, 1040, 1436, 1742; 'vessels of bronze' the natural goods which receive that life, 425, 1551. What 'Dedan' means is explained in 1172, 'Syria' in 1232, 1234. 'Judah and the land of Israel were your traders in wheat of minnith and pannag, honey, oil, and balm' means celestial and spiritual things from the Word. The rest of the nations and their merchandise that are mentioned mean different genera and species of truth and good, and so the cognitions that exist with those meant by 'Tyre'.

[4] On such cognitions wisdom and understanding rest, as is quite clear in the same prophet where the following is stated,

Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, By your wisdom and by your intelligence you have gained riches for yourself and gained gold and silver in your treasuries. By the vastness of your wisdom, by your trading, you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up on account of your riches; therefore, behold, I am bringing strangers - the terrible of the nations - upon you. Ezekiel 28:2, 4-7.

Here it is quite evident that the commodities with which they traded mean cognitions of good and truth since there is no other source from which wisdom and intelligence may be derived. Hence the statement, 'By your wisdom and by your intelligence you have gained riches for yourself and gained gold and silver in your treasuries'. But when cognitions are sought for the selfish purpose of becoming pre-eminent, and of gaining either reputation or riches, they have no life, and those people who possess them are deprived of such altogether. In this life they are deprived of them by embracing falsities instead of truths and evils instead of goods, and in the next life too they are deprived altogether of those things that are true. This is why it is said, 'Because your heart is lifted up on account of your riches, therefore I am bringing strangers (meaning falsities) - the terrible of nations (meaning evils) - upon you'. And elsewhere in the same prophet,

Tyre is like [a city] destroyed in the midst of the sea. When your wares came out of the seas you satisfied many peoples; with the multitude of your riches and of your commerce you enriched the kings of the earth. Now you are broken by the seas, in the depths of the waters; your commerce and all your company have sunk in the midst of you. The merchants among the peoples hiss at you. ² Ezekiel 27:32-34, 36.

And in Isaiah,

The prophecy concerning Tyre. The inhabitants of the island are silent, O merchant of Sidon passing over the sea; they have replenished you. On the great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the river, was her revenue and was the merchandise of nations. Who has purposed this against Tyre crowning itself, whose merchants were princes? Isaiah 23:2-3, 8.

This refers to the vastation of Tyre.

[5] Merchandise and wares are in a similar way spoken of in reference to Babylon, these being adulterated cognitions of good, and falsified cognitions of truth. In John,

Babylon has given all nations drink from the wine of the fury of her whoredom, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her; and the merchants of the earth, have grown rich from the abundance of her luxuries. The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, since no one buys their wares any more, wares of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, etc. The merchants in these things who were made rich by her will stand far off for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning. Revelation 18:3, 11-12, 15.

'Babylon' means worship, the external features of which seem holy but the interior features are unholy, see 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306, 1326. From this it is evident what its merchandise and wares mean.

[6] That 'a merchant' means one who acquires to himself cognitions of truth and good, and from these intelligence and wisdom, is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

The kingdom of heaven is like a trader seeking fine pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46.

'A fine pearl' is charity or the good of faith.

[7] That all cognitions of good and truth come from the Lord is taught in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, The labour of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and of the Sabaeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours. They will follow after you, they will come over in chains and bow down to you. To you they will make the supplication, God is with you only, and there is no other besides God. Isaiah 45:14.

This refers to the Lord's Divine Human.

[8] From all these places one may now see what is meant by acting as a merchant, or buying and selling, namely acquiring cognitions of good and truth for oneself, and by means of these cognitions acquiring good itself. This good is acquired from the Lord alone, as is clear in the same prophet,

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1-2.

Here 'buying' stands for acquiring for oneself, 'wine' stands for spiritual truth, 1071, 1798, 'milk' for spiritual good, 2184. Anyone may see that here 'coming to the waters' does not mean coming to the waters, nor that 'buying' means buying, nor 'money' money, nor 'wine and milk' wine and milk, but that each of these means something corresponding to it in the internal sense. For this is the Divine Word, in which all the expressions used - though fashioned out of things perceptible in the natural world and out of man's sensory impressions - have Divine spiritual and celestial things corresponding to them. In this and no other way is the Word Divinely inspired.

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1326. That 'therefore He called the name of it Babel' means such worship, namely that meant by 'Babel', is clear from what has been stated so far - about worship which inwardly contains self-love and therefore everything that is filthy and unholy. Self-love is nothing else than the proprium, and how filthy and unholy this is becomes clear from what has been shown already about the proprium in 210, 215. From philautia, ¹ that is, from self-love or the proprium, flow all evils, such as those of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and irreligion. Consequently when self-love or the proprium is present in worship, such evils are present too - but the particular kind of evils and their intensity being determined by the extent and nature of what flows from that self-love. This is the origin of all profanation in worship. The fact of the matter is that insofar as self-love or the proprium introduces itself into worship, internal worship departs, that is, internal worship ceases to exist. Internal worship consists in the affection for good and in the acknowledgement of truth, but to the extent that self-love or the proprium intrudes or enters in, the affection for good and the acknowledgement of truth depart or go away. Holiness cannot possibly co-exist with unholiness, any more than heaven can with hell. Instead one must depart from the other. Such is the state and proper order existing in the Lord's kingdom. This is the reason why among the kind of people whose worship is called 'Babel' no internal worship exists, but instead something dead and indeed inwardly corpse-like is worshipped. This shows what their external worship which is inwardly such is like.

[2] That such worship is 'Babel' is clear from many parts of the Word where Babel is described, as in Daniel, where the description of the statue which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel saw in a dream - whose head was gold, breast and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, legs iron, and feet partly iron and partly clay - means that true worship finally deteriorated into the kind of worship called 'Babel', and therefore also a stone cut out of the rock smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, Daniel 2:31-33, 44-45. The statue of gold which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel set up, and which people were to adore, had no other meaning, Daniel 3:1-end. The same applies to the description of the king of Babel with his nobles drinking wine from the vessels of gold that had come from the Temple in Jerusalem, of their praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone, and of writing therefore appearing on the wall, Daniel 5:1-end; to the description of Darius the Mede commanding that he be adored instead of God, Daniel 6:1-end; and to that of the beasts seen by Daniel in a dream, Daniel 7:1-end, as well as to that of the beasts and Babel in John's Revelation.

[3] That such worship was meant and represented is quite clear not only in Daniel and John but also in the Prophets: in Isaiah,

Their faces were faces of flames; the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give their light The sun is darkened in its coming up and the moon does not shed its light Tziim lie down there, and their houses are full of ochim, and daughters of the owl dwell there, and satyrs dance there, and iim answer in its palaces, and dragons in its halls of pleasure. Isaiah 13:8, 10, 21-22

This refers to Babel and describes the internal aspect of such worship by 'faces of flames', which are evil desires; by 'the stars', which are truths of faith, 'not giving their light'; by 'the sun', which is holy love, 'being darkened'; by 'the moon', which is the truth of faith, 'not shedding its light'; by 'tziim, ochim, daughters of the owl, satyrs, dim, and dragons', which are the more interior aspects of worship. For such things belong to self-love or the proprium. This also is why Babel in John is called 'the mother of whoredoms and abominations', Revelation 17:5; and in the same book,

A dwelling-place of demons, ² and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:2.

From these places it is evident that when such things are within, it is impossible for any good or truth of faith to be there, and that to the extent that those things enter in, the goods which are the objects of affection, and the truths of faith, depart. They are also called in Isaiah 21:9 'the graven images of the gods of Babel'.

[4] That it is self-love or the proprium which lies within their worship, or that it is worship of self, is quite clear in Isaiah,

Prophesy this parable against the king of Babel, You said in your heart, I will go up the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the uttermost parts of the north. I will go up above the heights of the cloud, I will make myself like the Most High. But you will be brought down to hell. Isaiah 14:4, 13-15.

Here, it is plain, Babel means the person who wishes to be worshipped as a god, that is, worship of self is meant.

[5] In the same prophet,

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. You trusted in your wickedness, you said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray; you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. Isaiah 47:1, 10.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth; and I will stretch out My hand over you and roll you down from the rocks and will make you into a mountain of burning. Though Babel rise up into the heavens, and though she fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me those who lay waste will come to her. Jeremiah 51:25, 53.

This again shows that 'Babel' is worship of self.

[6] The fact that such people have no light of truth, but only total darkness, that is, that they do not possess the truth of faith, is described in Jeremiah,

The word which Jehovah spoke against Babel, against the land of the Chaldeans, There will come up upon her a nation from the north, which will make her land a desolation, and none will dwell in it; both man and beast will scatter themselves, they will go away. Jeremiah 50:1, 3.

'The north' stands for thick darkness, or absence of truth. 'No man and no beast' stands for the absence of good. For more about Babel, see at verse 28 ³ below, where Chaldea is referred to.

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