6078. 'For there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants' means that factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth is wanting. This is clear from the meaning of 'pasture for the flock' as factual knowledge holding forms of the good of truth, so that 'no pasture' means factual knowledge that does not hold any forms of the good of truth. In the internal sense 'pasture' is that which supports spiritual life; in particular it is truth contained in factual knowledge, for the human soul desires such truth just as the body desires food. Nourishment is derived from it, and for that reason 'feeding' means receiving instruction, 5201. That factual knowledge and truths sustain the human soul is quite evident from a person's desire for knowledge, as well as from the correspondence of food with factual knowledge, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5193, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915. This correspondence also manifests itself when a person is eating food. If he eats it while talking and listening the vessels that receive the chyle are opened, and he is nourished more fully than if he is alone. Spiritual truths and instruction in them would have the same kind of effect on people if they were to have an affection for what is good. The fact that truths nourish spiritual life is revealed primarily among good spirits and among angels in heaven. Those spirits and angels have a constant desire to acquire knowledge and wisdom; and when they lack this spiritual food they feel desolate, listless, and famished. Nor are they refreshed and raised into the bliss of their life until their desires are satisfied. But if that factual knowledge is to yield the soul wholesome nourishment, that knowledge must contain life received from forms of the good of truth. If it does not contain life received from them factual knowledge still sustains a person's inner life, but his natural life, not his spiritual life.

[2] The meaning of 'pasture' in the internal sense as that which sustains a person's spiritual life is also evident from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I have given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land; to say to the bound, Go out, to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pasture be. Isaiah 49:8-9.

'Feeding along the ways' stands for receiving instruction in truths, 'the ways' being truths, see 627, 2333, and 'feeding' receiving instruction, 5201. 'On all slopes will their pasture be' stands for being sustained with good, for 'slopes', like 'mountains' are forms of the good of love, 795, 796, 1430, 2722, 4210.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of My pasture. Jeremiah 23:1.

'Pasture' stands for the kinds of things that sustain spiritual life. In the same prophet,

The princes of Zion have become like deer, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'They have not found pasture' stands for no truth of good.

[4] In Ezekiel,

I, even I will look for My sheep. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the mountains of the loftiness of Israel; there ¹ they will lie down in a good fold, and on fat pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:11, 14.

'A good and fat pasture upon the mountains of Israel' stands for forms of the good of truth. In the same prophet,

Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture but tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures. Ezekiel 34:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Hosea,

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When [they had] their pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13:5-6.

In Joel,

The beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, even the flocks of sheep ² are made desolate. Joel 1:18.

In David,

Jehovah is my Shepherd; He will make me lie down in green pasture; ³ He will lead me away to still waters; He will restore My soul. Psalms 23:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah made us and not we ourselves, His people and the flock of His pasture; therefore we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. ⁴ Psalms 100:3.

[5] 'Pasture' in these quotations stands for the truths in which a person receives instruction, here the kinds of things which have regard to spiritual life. For the nature of spiritual life is such that if it lacks that pasture it languishes and so to speak fades away, like the body when it lacks food. The fact that 'pasture' is the goodness and truth that refresh and sustain a person's soul or spirit is plain from the Lord's words in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9.

'Pasture' stands for the forms of good and the truths which those people have who acknowledge the Lord and seek life from Him alone.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3324. 'Jacob said' means the doctrine of truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the doctrine of natural truth, dealt with in 3305, or what amounts to the same, as those with whom the doctrine of truth predominates. The subject in these verses to the end of this chapter is, To which does the priority of place rightly belong - whether to truth or to good; or what amounts to the same, whether it belongs to the doctrine of truth or to the life within good; or what also amounts to the same, whether it belongs to faith, insofar as faith is the truth taught by doctrine, or to charity, insofar as charity is the good of life? When a person judges things from natural perception he supposes that faith, insofar as it is truth taught by doctrine, is prior to charity, insofar as this is the good of life. He supposes this because he perceives how truth, which is taught by doctrine, enters in, but not how good, which is the good of life, does so; for truth enters in by an external route, that of the senses, whereas good enters in by an internal route. In addition he supposes that faith is prior for the reason that he cannot know other than that truth, since it teaches what good is, exists prior to good, and also for the reason that a person's reformation is effected by means of truth as well as in accordance with truth; indeed he is perfected in good only to the extent that truth can be joined to it, so that good is perfected by means of truth. Yet another reason why he supposes that faith is first is that a person may know the truth and be able to think and speak from it, and to do so seemingly with ardent zeal, even though at the same time no good exists with him; indeed from that truth he may be quite confident of salvation. These and many other considerations cause a person, when judging matters from the sensory and natural man, to think that truth, which constitutes faith, comes before good, which flows from charity. But all these ideas are reasonings based on illusions, for they are things as seen by the sensory and natural man.

[2] That which is prior is good itself - the good of life. This good is the ground itself into which truths are sown, and the nature of the ground determines how the seeds, that is, the truths of faith, are received. Truths are, indeed, able to be stored away previous to this in the memory like seeds in a box or in the crop situated in the gullet of small birds, but they do not become part of a person until the ground is prepared. And the character of the ground, that is, of good, determines that of their growth and fruitfulness. But see what has been shown in many places already regarding these matters. Those places are indicated below so that from them it may be known what good is and what truth is, and that good has priority over truth, not truth over good:

[3] Why no distinct idea may be had of the difference between good and truth, 2507. ¹

Good flows in by an internal route unknown to man, whereas truth is obtained by an external route, which is known to him, 3030, 3098.

Truths are the recipient vessels of good, 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, 3068, 3318.

Good acknowledges its own truth to which it is joined, 3101, 3102, 3179.

Very careful examination is made and precaution taken to prevent falsity being joined to good, or truth to evil, 3033, 3101, 3102.

Good forms for itself the truth to which it is joined since it acknowledges no other as truth than that which accords with it, 3161.

Truth is nothing other than that which springs from good, 2434.

Truth is the form that good takes, 3049.

Truth possesses within itself the image of good, and within good the replica of itself from which it springs, 3180.

The seed that is truth is rooted in the good that stems from charity, 880.

Faith cannot possibly exist except within its own life, that is, within love and charity, 379, 389, 654, 724, 1608, 2343, 2349.

It is possible for truths that constitute matters of doctrine concerning faith to be looked at from love and charity, but not the reverse, 2454.

Looking from faith and not from love and charity is looking behind oneself and turning backwards, 2454.

Truth is given life according to the good anyone has, thus according to the state of innocence and charity residing with that person, 1776, 3111.

Truths of faith can be received only by those who are governed by good, 2343, 2349.

Those who have no charity are not able to acknowledge the Lord, nor thus any truth of faith at all. If they do profess it, it is something external devoid of what is internal, or something that is the product of hypocrisy, 2354.

No faith at all is present where there is no charity, 654, 1162, 1176, 2429.

Wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge are 'the sons' of charity, 1226.

Since love exists with angels, so do intelligence and wisdom, 2500, 2572.

Angelic life consists in the good deeds of charity; and angels are forms of charity, 454, 553.

Love to the Lord is His likeness and charity towards the neighbour His image, 1013.

Angels perceive through love to the Lord anything that is a matter of faith, 202.

Nothing has life except love and affection, 1589.

Those who have mutual love, or charity, have the Lord's life, 1799, 1803.

Love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour is heaven itself, 1802, 1824, 2057, 2130, 2131.

The Lord's presence is relative to the state of love and charity, 904.

All the Ten Commandments and all matters of faith have their origin in charity, 1121, 1798.

Knowledge of matters of doctrine concerning faith achieves nothing if a person does not have charity, for matters of doctrine have charity as the end in view, 2049, 2116.

No acknowledgement of truth, nor thus faith, can exist unless a person is governed by good, 2261.

The holiness of worship depends on the nature of and the amount of the truth of faith that has been implanted in charity, 2190.

There is no salvation through faith but through the life of faith, which is charity, 2228, 2261.

The heavenly kingdom belongs to those who have faith that is the expression of charity, 1608.

In heaven all are viewed from charity and from faith from this, 1258.

They are not allowed into heaven, except by willing what is good from the heart, 2401.

People are saved who possess faith provided that faith includes good, 2261, 2442.

Faith which has not been implanted in the good of life perishes altogether in the next life, 2228.

If faith that is purely thought could save, all would be brought into heaven; but it is because their life prevents them that some are not able to be saved, 2363.

Those who maintain the idea that faith alone saves defile truths with the falsity of that idea, 2383, 2385.

The fruits of faith are good works; a good work is charity; charity is love to the Lord; and that love is the Lord, 1873.

The fruits of faith are the fruit of good which stems from love and charity, 3146.

Trust or confidence which is called faith that saves cannot exist except with those who are leading a good life, 2982.

Good is the life of truth, 1589.

At what point truths may be said to have acquired life, 1928.

Good from the Lord flows into truths of every kind, but it is supremely important that they should be genuine truths, 2531.

The amount of good and truth that flows in from the Lord depends on the extent to which evil and falsity is being removed. 2411, 3142, 3147.

Good cannot flow into truth as long as a person is under the influence of evil, 2388.

Truth is not truth until it has been accepted by good, 2429.

The marriage of good and truth exists in every single thing, 2173, 2508, 2517.

The affection for good constitutes life, and the affection for truth exists for the sake of life, 2455. ¹

Truth tends towards good, and stems from good, 2063.

By means of influx truths are summoned out of the natural man, raised up, and implanted in the good present in the rational, 3085, 3086.

When truth is joined to good it becomes a person's own, 3108.

For truth to be joined to good there has to be consent from the understanding and the will. When there is consent from the will conjunction takes place, 3157, 3158.

Truth in the rational is acquired by means of cognitions, and truths become a person's own when they are joined to good. at which point they belong to the will and exist for the sake of life, 3161.

Truth is introduced and joined to good, not all at once but throughout the whole of life, and beyond, 3200.

Just as light devoid of warmth is unproductive, so is the truth of faith when devoid of good stemming from love, 3146.

The nature of the idea of truth devoid of good, and the nature of its light in the next life, 2228.

Separated faith is like the light in winter, whereas faith derived from charity is like the light in the spring, 2231.

Those who in action separate the truth, which constitutes faith, from charity are unable to have conscience, 1076, 1077.

The reason why they have separated faith from charity and said that faith saved, 2231.

When a person is being regenerated the Lord instills good into the truths residing with him, 2063, 2189.

A person is not regenerated by means of truth but by means of good, 989, 2146, 2183, 2189, 2697.

When a person is being regenerated the Lord comes to meet him and fills the truths residing with him with the good of charity, 2063.

Those who lead a good life but do not have the truth of faith, like gentiles and young children, receive truths of faith in the next life and undergo regeneration, 989; regarding gentiles, 932, 1032, 2049, 2284, 2589-2604; regarding young children, 2290-2293, 2302-2304.

A person is regenerated by means of the affection for truth, and one who is regenerate acts from the affection for good, 1904.

With one who is to be regenerated seed is unable to take root except in good, 880, 989.

The light that a regenerate person has flows from charity, not from faith, 854.

The same truths are indeed truths with one person, but with another less so, and with some they are even falsities; this variation is determined by the good of life in each of them, 2439.

What the difference is between the good of a young child, the good of one who does not know, and the good of one who has intelligence, 2280.

Who are able to enter into cognitions of truth and into faith, and who are not, 2689.

The Church does not exist unless truths of doctrine have been implanted in the good of life, 3310.

Doctrine does not make the Church, but charity, 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844.

The Church's doctrines count for nothing if people do not live according to them, 1515.

The doctrine of faith is the doctrine of charity, 2571.

The Church exists from charity, not from separated faith, 916.

Anyone may know from charity whether the internal dimension of worship exists with him, 1102, 1151, 1153.

The Lord's Church spread throughout the world is everywhere various so far as truths are concerned, but it is one through charity, 3267.

The Church would be one Church if all had charity even though they differed in religious observances and on points of doctrine, 809, 1285, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844.

From being many it would become one Church if with everyone charity and not faith were the essential thing of the Church, 2982.

There are two kinds of doctrinal teachings - teachings to do with charity and teachings to do with faith. The Ancient Church possessed matters of doctrine concerning charity which today belong among things that have been lost, 2417.

How ignorant of the truth they are who do not possess matters of doctrine concerning charity, 2435.

And because at the present day faith is regarded as the essential thing of the Church people do not even see or pay any attention to the things that the Lord has said so many times about love and charity, 1017, 2373.

Good that is the expression of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour is higher and prior to truth that constitutes faith, and not the reverse, 363, 364.

Poznámky pod čarou: