Verse 8. When the Lord from the inmost principles of the soul began to arrange the affections in heavenly order by regeneration, when He separated what could be regenerated by love to Himself, He furnished the mind with truths necessary for salvation in complete order. [Note.—With reference to the last two verses the following passage is given in the Arcana Coelestia 6075: "Remember the days of eternity, understand the years of generation and generation. When the Most High gave an inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of man, He appointed the boundaries of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel. When Jeshurun waxed fat he forsook God. He sacrificed to demons, to gods who came not near, and your fathers knew not" (Deuteronomy 32:7-8, 15, 17). This passage occurs in the prophetic song of Moses, wherein the Ancient Church is treated of from verses 7-15, and the posterity of Jacob from verses 15-44; the state of the Most Ancient Church, which was before the Flood, is signified by the days of eternity; and the state of the Ancient Church, which was after the Flood, by the years of generation and generation; the state of their good by the inheritance which the Most High gave to the nations, and the state of their truth by the Most High separating the sons of men, appointing the boundaries of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel; this number, or twelve, denotes all the truths of faith in the complex. As explained in the preface, the endeavour is made in this Study of the Book of Deuteronomy to develop the internal sense as it applies to the individual soul, and not as it applies to mankind as a whole: but the one sense is involved within the other; for the mind of man is a microcosm, and an individual in regeneration has to go through the same changes that mankind has gone through collectively. We have had our Most Ancient Church in the innocence of infancy; our Ancient Church in the period of youth; and the destiny desired for us by the Lord, if we will follow Him, is that we should ultimately be brought to that state which is described by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation (Revelation 19:0—22:0), and by verses 36-43 of this chapter; in which the innocence of infancy is united to the wisdom of adult age.]

545. THE LORD CASTS NO ONE INTO HELL; BUT THIS IS DONE BY THE SPIRIT HIMSELF

An opinion has prevailed with some that God turns away His face from man, rejects man from Himself, and casts him into hell, and is angry with him on account of his evil; and with some the opinion goes further, that God punishes man and does evil to him. They confirm themselves in this opinion from the sense of the letter of the Word, where similar things are said, not knowing that the spiritual sense of the Word, which explains the sense of the letter, is wholly different; and consequently that the genuine doctrine of the Church, which is from the spiritual sense of the Word, teaches otherwise, namely, that God never turns away His face from man, and never rejects man from Himself; that He casts no one into hell and is angry with no one. ¹ Everyone, moreover, whose mind is enlightened, perceives this to be true when he reads the Word, from a perception solely from it, because God is Good Itself, Love Itself, and Mercy Itself; and he has a perception that Good Itself cannot do evil to anyone, and Love Itself and Mercy Itself cannot reject man from itself; because this is contrary to the very essence of mercy and love, thus contrary to the Divine Itself. Therefore those who think from an enlightened mind clearly perceive, when they read the Word, that God never turns Himself away from man; and as He never turns Himself away from him He deals with him from goodness, love, and mercy, that is, wills good to him, loves him, and is merciful to him. And from this they see that the sense of the letter of the Word, in which such things are said, has stored up within itself a spiritual sense, and that these expressions, that are used in the sense of the letter in accommodation to man's apprehension and according to his first and general ideas, are to be explained in accordance with the spiritual sense.

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