6135. There is naught left before my lord besides our body and our ground. That this signifies that the receptacles of good and truth were completely desolated, is evident from the signification of “body,” as being a receptacle of good (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “ground,” as being a receptacle of truth. That “ground” denotes a receptacle of truth is because it receives seeds, and by the seeds that are sown in it are specifically signified those things which are of faith from charity, thus which are of truth from good (see n. 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373); hence “ground” denotes a receptacle of truth, as may be seen from what has before been said and shown concerning “ground” (n. 566, 1068, 3671). That these receptacles were desolated is signified by there being “naught left before my lord besides.”

[2] In the genuine sense “body” signifies the good which is of love, and “ground” the truth which is of faith; but when the truths and goods of truth which are signified by “silver” and “cattle” are no longer visible on account of the desolation, then by “body” is signified only a receptacle of good, and by “ground” only a receptacle of truth. That in the genuine sense “body” signifies the good which is of love, is because the body, or the whole man which is meant by the “body,” is a receptacle of life from the Lord, thus a receptacle of good; for the good of love makes the life itself in man, because the vital heat, which is love, is the vital heat itself; and unless this heat is in a man, he is a dead thing. Therefore it is that by the “body” in the internal sense is meant the good of love. And even if a man has no heavenly love, but only infernal love, still the inmost of his life is from heavenly love, for this love continually flows in from the Lord and effects in him vital heat in its beginning; but in its progress it is perverted by the man, whence comes infernal love, from which there is an unclean heat.

[3] That in the genuine sense “body” is the good of love, is very evident from the angels, for when they become present, love so pours out of them that you would believe them to be nothing but love, and this from their whole body, which also appears bright and shining from the light which is from the love; for the good of love is like a flame which emits from itself light, which is the truth of faith thence derived. This being the character of the angels in heaven, what must not the Lord Himself be, from whom the angels have everything of love, and whose Divine Love appears as a Sun from which the universal heaven has its light, and all who are therein have their heavenly heat, that is, their love, thus their life. It is the Lord’s Divine Human which so appears, and from which all these things are. From this it is evident what is meant by the Lord’s “body,” namely, the Divine love, in like manner as by His “flesh” (see n. 3813). Moreover the Lord’s very body when glorified, that is, made Divine, is nothing else. What else must we think about the Divine, which is infinite?

[4] From all this it may be known that by the “body” in the Holy Supper nothing else is meant than the Lord’s Divine love toward the universal human race, concerning which it is thus written in the Gospels:

Jesus taking the bread, and blessing, brake and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19);

“this is My body,” He said of the bread, because by the “bread” also is signified the Divine love (n. 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 4735, 5915).

[5] The Divine love is also signified by the Lord’s “body” in John:

Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But He spake of the temple of His body (John 2:19, 21).

The “temple of His body” is the Divine truth from the Divine good (that the “temple” is the Lord as to Divine truth, see above, n. 3720). And because His “body” in the supreme sense is the Divine good of the Lord’s Divine love, therefore all who are in heaven are said to be “in the Lord’s body.”

[6] That the Lord’s “body” is the Divine good, is evident also from these words in Daniel:

I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, a man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz; his body also was like the tarshish, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as torches of fire, and his arms and his feet like the shining of burnished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude (Daniel 10:5-6);

by the “gold of Uphaz with which the loins were girded,” by the “appearance of lightning which was on his face,” by the “torches of fire which his eyes presented,” and by the “shining of brass which was of his arms and his feet,” are signified the goods of love; that “gold” is the good of love, may be seen above (n. 113, 1551, 1552, 5658), and also “fire” (n. 934, 4906, 5215), and because “fire” so also “lightning;” and that “brass” is the good of love and of charity in the natural (n. 425, 1551); by the “tarshish,” like to which the rest of the body appeared, namely, the middle of the body between the head and the loins, is signified the good of charity and of faith, for the tarshish is a flashing precious stone.

3464. And showed him concerning the well which they had digged; and they said, We have found waters. That this signifies interior truths by means of these things, is evident from the signification of a “well,” as being the Word (n. 3424); and from the signification of “waters,” as being truths (n. 2702t is, truths which are from the Word; thus to “show him concerning the well which they had digged,” signifies concerning the Word from which they had doctrinal things; “and they said, We have found waters,” signifies that in them, that is, in the doctrinal things, there were interior truths. For as before said, there are interior truths in all the doctrinal things that are drawn from the literal sense of the Word, because the literal sense of the Word is like a well that contains water; for in each and everything of the Word there is an internal sense, which is also in the doctrinal things that are from the Word.

[2] As regards the doctrinal things that are from the literal sense of the Word, the case is this: When a man is in them, and at the same time in a life according to them, he has a correspondence in himself; for the angels who are with him are in interior truths, while he is in exterior ones, and thus through the doctrinal things he has communication with heaven, but according to the good of his life. As for example, when in the Holy Supper he thinks in simplicity of the Lord from the words then used, “This is My body, and this is “My blood,” the angels with him are in the idea of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor; for love to the Lord corresponds to the Lord’s body, and to bread; and charity toward the neighbor corresponds to the blood, and the wine (n. 1798, 2165, 2177, 2187); and because there is such a correspondence, there flows an affection out of heaven through the angels into that holy state in which the man then is, which affection he receives in accordance with the good of his life.

[3] For the angels dwell with everyone in his life’s affection, thus in the affection of the doctrinal things according to which he lives; but in no case if his life disagrees therewith; for if the life disagrees, as for instance if he is in the affection of gaining honors and riches by means of doctrinal things, then the angels retire, and infernals dwell in this affection, who either infuse into him confirmations of the doctrinal things for the sake of self and the world, thus a persuasive faith-which is such that it is regardless whether a thing is true or false provided it captivates the minds of others-or else they take away all faith, and then the doctrine of his lips is only a sound excited and modified by the fire of these loves.