10030. That covereth the intestines. That this signifies which pertains to ultimate or lowest things, is evident from the signification of “the intestines,” as being ultimate or lowest things. “The intestines” denote ultimate or lowest things because they are the ultimate and lowest of man’s interior viscera, not only in respect to situation, but also in respect to use. In respect to situation they are below the stomach, to which they are appended; and in respect to use, they receive last the things digested in man. Above them, as is known, are the stomach, liver, pancreas, and spleen; and still further above are the heart and lungs; and above all is the head. It is also known that the superior organs cast their filth and refuse into the intestines, and thereby remove it, partly by means of the stomach, partly by means of the ducts from the liver, called the hepatic ducts, and also the cystic or biliary, partly by means of the ducts from the pancreas, which with the rest have their outlets into the intestine called the duodenum; from which it is now evident why ultimate or lowest things are signified by “the intestines.” (That by the viscera in man are signified such things as are of the spiritual world, can be seen from what has been abundantly shown at the end of many chapters, where the correspondence of the Grand Man, which is heaven, with all things in man, has been treated of. What in particular corresponds to the intestines, see in n. 5392; and that the hells correspond to the feces and excrements thence ejected, n. 5393-5396)

[2] As in what now follows mention is made of some parts of the body, as the caul, liver, and kidneys, also the legs, breast, shoulders, and head; and as the ordering of them in the sacrifices is treated of, it shall first be shown that by man’s members in general are signified such things as are in the Grand Man, that is, in heaven; here only those by which the statue of Nebuchadnezzar is described in Daniel:

Its head was of pure gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and sides of brass, its legs of iron, and its feet part of iron and part of clay (Daniel 2:32-33);

one who does not know that the Word of the Lord is spiritual, believes that this was said of the kingdoms of the earth; but in the Word the kingdoms of the earth are not treated of, but the kingdom of God, thus heaven and the church. These are described by such things as are on earth and in the kingdoms of earth, because worldly and earthly things correspond to such as are in heaven; for all nature and the whole world is a theater representative of the Lord’s kingdom (see the places cited in n. 9280), and earthly and worldly things are what man first apprehends.

[3] From this it can be seen that by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream are not signified earthly, but heavenly things; but what is specifically signified by the head, breast, belly, and sides, and by the legs and feet, can be known from their correspondence, thus from the internal sense of the Word. From correspondence it is known that by the “head” is signified the first state of the church; by the “breast and arms” the second, by the “belly and side” the third, by the “legs” the fourth, and by the “feet” the last. As the first state of the church was a state of good of love to the Lord, it is said that “the head was of gold;” and as the second state was a state of truth from this good, it is said that “the breast and arms were of silver;” and as the third state was the good of love and its truth in the external or natural man, it is said that “the belly and sides were of brass;” and as the fourth state was the truth of faith, it is said that “the legs were of iron;” and as the last state was truth, which is called of faith, without good, it is said that “the feet were part of iron and part of clay.” And as such a state of the church was the last, it is said that “out of the rock was cut a stone, which brake in pieces and scattered all things, so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them” (Daniel 2:34-35). By this is signified that the good of love to the Lord, the good of charity toward the neighbor, and the good of faith, had completely disappeared, insomuch that it was not known what they are; but only something about the truths of faith without good, or with good which is not good, thus which does not cohere with the truths of faith.

[4] This good is external good without internal, such as is the good of merit, good for the sake of self and for the sake of the world; thus for the sake of profit, honor, and reputation; for the sake of friendship on account of these, or for the sake of favor; and also merely on account of the fear of the law; and not for the sake of the good of charity, which is the good of one’s fellow-citizen, the good of human society, the good of our country, and the good of the church.

[5] Such goods as are mentioned above are signified by “clay,” or “mire,” and the truth with which this good does not cohere is “iron.” Therefore it is said:

The iron, which thou sawest mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of man, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay (Daniel 2:43);

“the seed of man” denotes the truth of faith from man’s own, thus truth falsified and adulterated by application to evils from regard to self and the world. From all this it is evident that by the members of man, from his head down to the sole of the foot, are signified such things as belong to the church.

[6] (That in general the “head” signifies celestial good, which is the good of love to the Lord; the “breast,” spiritual good, which is the good of charity toward the neighbor; and the “feet,” natural good, which is the good and truth of faith, see n. 9913, 9914; also that similar things are signified by “gold,” “silver,” “brass,” and “iron,” n. 5658; what is specifically signified by the “head,” see n. 4938, 4939, 5328, 9913, 9914; what by “gold,” n. 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 9510, 9881; what by the “breast,” n. 4938, 4939, 5328, 6436, 9913, 9914; what by “silver,” n. 1551, 5658, 6914, 6917. From this it is evident what is signified by the “belly” and the “sides,” which are below the breast; but what is signified by “brass,” see n. 425, 1551; what by the “feet,” n. 2162, 3147, 3761, 4938-4952; what by “iron,” n. 425, 426; and what by “clay,” or “mire,” n. 1300, 6669)

[7] From all this it can now be known that by the members and viscera of man are signified such things as correspond to those in the Grand Man, or in heaven, all of which bear relation to the good of love and the truth of faith; and the things that correspond to these correspond also to the same things in the church, for the Lord’s heaven on earth is the church. That there is a correspondence of man and of all things pertaining to man with the Grand Man, which is heaven, see what has been shown from experience itself at the end of many chapters, at these places, n. 3624-3649, 3741-3751, 3883-3896, 4039-4051, 4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4421, 4527-4533, 4622-4633, 4652-4660, 4791-4805, 4931-4953, 5050-5061, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 5846-5866, 5976-5993, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6326, 6466-6495. Also what correspondence is, n. 2987-3003, 3213-3227, 3337-3352, 3472-3485)

4527. I have spoken with some a few days after their decease, and who being recently arrived were in a light which to them differed but little from the light of this world, which caused them to doubt whether they had the light from any other source. They were therefore taken up into the entrance of heaven, where there was a light still clearer; and speaking with me from there, they said that they had never seen such a light; and yet this occurred after our sunset. They then wondered that spirits have eyes wherewith to see, and yet during their bodily life they had believed that the life of spirits is mere thought, abstracted from any subject, for they had not been able to think of any subject of thought because they had not seen it. And this being the case, they had imagined that as the spirit is mere thought it must be dissipated, like some breath of air or some fire, together with the body that had contained it, unless it were miraculously held together and kept in existence by the Lord. And they then saw how easily the learned fall into error regarding the life after death, and that above all others they believe nothing but what they see. They wondered therefore, not merely that they can think, but also that they can see, and enjoy all the other senses, and still more that they appear to themselves exactly like men, and see, hear, and converse with one another, and feel their own members by touch, and this more exquisitely than in the life of the body. At this they fell into amazement, that men living in this world know nothing of this, and they pitied the human race for their ignorance of such things consequent on their unbelief in them, and especially did they pity those who have more light than others, namely, those who are within the church and have the Word.

[2] Some of them had believed that after death men would be like ghosts, in which opinion they had confirmed themselves from the specters of which they had heard, but in regard to which they had imagined that such a specter must be some gross principle of life, which first exhales from the body’s life, but afterwards sinks back again into the corpse, and is thus extinguished. Some however had believed that they would not rise again until the time of the last judgment when the world would be destroyed, and they would then rise again with the body, which, though fallen into dust, would then be gathered together, and they would thus rise again with their bones and flesh. And as that last judgment or destruction of the world had been waited for in vain for many centuries, they had fallen into the error that they would never rise again; never thinking of what they had learned from the Word, and from which they had also sometimes spoken, saying that when a man dies his soul is in the hand of God, among the happy or the unhappy according to the life which he had made habitual to himself; nor thinking of what the Lord said about the rich man and Lazarus. But they were instructed that the last judgment of everyone is when he dies; and that he then appears to himself endowed with a body as in the world, and enjoys as here every sense, only more pure and exquisite because bodily things no longer stand in the way, and the things of the light of the world no longer darken those of the light of heaven; thus that they are as it were in a purified body, and that in the other life one could not possibly carry about a body of bones and flesh such as he had in the world, because this would be to be again encompassed with the dust of the earth.

[3] I have spoken on this subject with some on the very day their bodies were being entombed, who saw through my eyes their own corpse, the bier, and the funeral ceremony; and they said that they reject that body, which had served them for uses in the world in which they had been, and that they are now living in a body which serves them for uses in the world in which they are now. They also desired me to tell these things to their relatives who were mourning; but it was given me to reply, that if I should do so they would scoff, because that which they could not see with their own eyes they would believe to be nothing, and would set down as delusive visions. For men cannot be brought to believe that just as they see one another with their eyes, so spirits see one another with theirs; and that a man can only see spirits with the eyes of his own spirit, and that he sees them when the Lord opens his internal sight, as was done to the prophets, who saw spirits and angels, and also many things in heaven; and there is room for doubt whether those now living would have believed these things if they had lived at that time.