10540. 'And now, take off your finery' means the nature of their external which is such that it is without anything Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'finery', when the Church is the subject, as holy truth or that which is Divine in external things, dealt with above in 10536; and from the meaning of 'taking it off' as shedding it, thus being without it. The fact that that which is Divine in external things or holy truth is meant by 'finery' is clear from the following places: In Ezekiel,

I clothed you with embroidered cloth, and shod you with badger; and I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with finery, and put bracelets onto your hands and a chain onto your neck. And I put a jewel onto your nose, and earrings on your ears, and a crown of glory onto your head. Thus were you adorned with gold and silver; and your garments were fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, [honey,] and oil; therefore you became extremely beautiful, and attained to a kingdom. For this reason your fame ¹ went out among the nations, regarding your beauty; for this was made perfect by My finery which I had put on you. Ezekiel 16:10-14.

[2] This refers to Jerusalem and means the Church which had been established by the Lord after the Flood and was succeeded by the Israelite and Jewish Church. The character of the latter is also described in the same chapter; but the character of that previous Ancient Church is described in the verses just quoted, its holy truths being described by the adornments spoken of there. Anyone may see that things such as have to do with the Church are meant by those specifically mentioned, and that each one means something particular. What other purpose does such a description of Jerusalem serve?

[3] Yet which aspect of the Church is meant by each one becomes clear solely from the internal sense. For this sense shows what exactly in the spiritual world corresponds to each item in the description. The following is made clear by that sense,

'Embroidered cloth' means true factual knowledge, 9688.

'Fine linen' means intellectual truth from the Divine, 5319, 9469, 9596, 9744.

'Bracelets' means the power of truths, 3103, 3105.

'A neck-chain' means the flowing in of truth derived from good, and the consequent joining together of interior things and exterior ones, 5320.

'A nose-jewel' means the perception of truth, and 'earrings' obedience to truths, 4551, 10402.

'A crown of glory' means spiritual good, or the good of truth, good being meant by 'a crown', 9930, and that which is spiritual by 'glory', 9815.

'Gold and silver' means goodness and truth in general, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9874.

'Fine flour, honey, and oil' means truths and forms of good, external and internal ones, truth from good being meant by 'fine flour', 9995, external good by 'honey', 10530, and internal good by 'oil', 886, 4582, 4638, 9474, 9780, 10254, 10261.

'Beauty' means the outward form taken by truth derived from good, 3080, 3821, 4985, 5199.

And 'Jerusalem', about which those things are said, means the Church, see 402, 2117, 3654. From all this it is evident what 'finery' means, namely holy truth in its entirety.

[4] All the finery of the daughters of Zion which is itemized in Isaiah has a like meaning,

On that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, and of the networks, and of the crescents, and of the perfume containers ² , and of the chainlets, and of the bracts ³ , and the tiaras, and the garters, and the sashes, and the perfume boxes ⁴ , and the charms; the rings, and the nose-jewels, the changes of clothes, and the robes, and the veils, and the pin-cases, the mirrors, and the muslin, and the turbans, and the linen garments. And it will happen, that instead of fragrance there will be rottenness, and instead of a girdle, a falling apart, and instead of well-set hair ⁵ , baldness, and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth, burning instead of beauty. Your people will fall by the sword, and [so will] your strength in war. Isaiah 3:18-25.

Those who confine themselves to the literal sense inevitably think that all these items with which the daughters of Zion are said to be adorned must be understood literally, and that it was because of that finery and the pride and arrogance it would create that the people of that kingdom would perish, since it says, your people will fall by the sword, and your strength in war. But those who raise their minds to some extent above the literal statement can see that such things should not be understood literally.

[5] From various places in the Word they can see that 'the daughters of Zion' should not be taken to mean the daughters of Zion but such things as are aspects of the Church, which are also meant by the daughters of Jerusalem, the daughters of Israel, the daughters of Judah, and many other daughters. Regarding 'daughters', that they mean the Church and aspects of the Church, see 6729, 9055(end). Since therefore the Church and aspects of the Church are meant by 'the daughters of Zion' it follows that all their finery itemized in this chapter of Isaiah mean the Church's truths and forms of good, and that each item means some specific truth or form of good. For nothing that appears in the Word, not even one small expression, is devoid of meaning.

[6] And because that Church will be bereaved of its truths and forms of good, meant by all that finery, the prophecy goes on to say that instead of fragrance there will be rottenness, instead of a girdle a falling apart, instead of well-set hair baldness, instead of a robe a girding of sackcloth, burning instead of beauty, and also that the people will fall by the sword, as will [their] strength in war. For 'fragrance' or 'spice' means the perception of Divine Truth, 10199, 10291, and 'rottenness' the deprivation of it; 'a girdle' means a bond holding truths and forms of good in connection with one another, 9341(end), 9828, 9837, 'a falling apart instead of it' the disintegration and diffusion of them; 'well-set hair' means true factual knowledge, 2831 ⁶ , 'baldness' being deprived of an intelligent understanding of truth and of a wise discernment of good, 9960; 'burning' means the destruction of these by the evils of self-love, 1297, 2446, 7852, 9055, 9141, 'beauty' the outward form that truth springing from good takes within the Church, thus the perfection of it, 3080, 3821, 4985, 5199; and 'the sword' by which the people will fall means falsity destroying truth and good, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294. Having no 'strength in war' means having no resistance to evil and falsity, for 'war' is spiritual conflict, and temptation, 1659, 1664, 2686, 8273, 8295, 10455.

From all this it is now evident that 'finery' in general means the Divine Truth which the Church possesses.

[7] The like is meant by 'finery' in the second Book of Samuel,

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in twice-dyed pleasantly ⁷ , who put gold finery on your clothing. 2 Samuel 1:24.

These words appear in David's lamentation over Saul, which he entitled in verse 18 of that chapter, To teach the children of Judah the bow. 'The bow' in this verse means doctrine consisting of truth engaged in conflict against falsities of evil, 2686, 2709, 6422. This being so, 'daughters of Israel' means the Church's affections for truth, 2362, 3963, 6729, 6775, 6788, 8994; 'being clothed in twice-dyed pleasantly' means being endued with the Church's interior truths, which spring from good, 4922, 9468; 'putting gold finery on clothing' means giving truths that spring from good a beautiful appearance, good being meant by 'gold', see in the places referred to in 9874, and truth in general by 'clothing' or 'garment', in the places referred to above in 10536(end). The reason why David's lamentation over Saul has to do with doctrine consisting of truth, meant by 'the bow', engaged in conflict against falsity of evil is that 'the king' or the royal office held by Saul means Divine Truth in respect of protection and of judgement, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

[8] The like is meant by 'finery' in other places: In David,

Give to Jehovah the glory of His name; bow down to Jehovah in the finery of holiness. Psalms 29:2.

'In the finery of holiness' means with the authentic truths of the Church. Similarly in Isaiah,

Your sons will make haste. Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together. I am the Living One, said Jehovah; you will put them all on as finery, and gird them round yourself like a bride. Isaiah 49:17-18.

These words too refer to Zion, by which the celestial Church is meant, 'sons' who 'will make haste' meaning this Church's truths. (For the meaning of 'sons' as truths, see 489, 491, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, 9807.) This explains why it says that Zion will put them all on as finery and gird them round herself like a bride; such can be said of the Church's truths, but not of the sons of Zion.

[9] Since almost everything in the Word also has a contrary meaning, so do those objects constituting finery. In the contrary sense they mean truths that have been falsified, as in Jeremiah,

You who have been laid waste, what will you do? If you clothe yourself in twice-dyed, if you adorn yourself with gold finery, if you widen your eyes with stibium ⁸ , in vain will you make yourself beautiful. Jeremiah 4:29, 30.

And in Hosea,

I will visit on her ⁹ the days of the baals to whom she burned incense, and put on her nose-jewel and her finery, and went after her lovers and forgot Me. Hosea 2:13.

And in other places.

Poznámky pod čarou:

7779. 'From Pharaoh's firstborn who is to sit on his throne' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. This is clear from the meaning of 'firstborn' as faith, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035; from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as factual knowledge in general perverting the Church's truths, dealt with in 6015, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, so that 'Pharaoh's firstborn' is faith consisting of such truths, that is, faith consisting of falsified truths of faith; and from the meaning of 'throne' as the rule of truth, and in the contrary sense the rule of falsity, dealt with in 5313. The fact that 'Pharaoh's firstborn who is to sit on his throne' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place is evident from the use of the words 'even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill', which mean falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place; besides which the king's son means that which is primary since the king is the head.

[2] Falsified truths occupying the first place are those which are taken to be essential truths, such as these: Faith saves a person irrespective of the life he has been leading; it saves a person in the final hour of his life; he is at that point pure and free from sins, which means that these are removed in an instant like dirt on the hands by water. Those falsified truths posit that faith does exist without charity, that so far as a person's salvation is concerned it does not matter what kind of life he leads, and also that a person who is a devil can become an angel of God in an instant. Such notions and others like them are the falsified truths occupying the first place; those that are immediately derived from them occupy the second place; and those which are remotely derived from them occupy the last place. For every truth has a long wide-ranging sequence of derivations, some of which are in a direct line from it, some at an angle, while those that merely touch on that truth stand on the outermost edges.

[3] The fact that such notions and others like them are falsified truths of faith is very plain to see. Does anyone who thinks properly not know that the life of faith makes a person spiritual, not faith except to the extent that it has been integrated into his life? A person's life is his love, and what he loves, that he wills and intends; and what he wills and intends, that he does. This is the essential nature (esse) of the person, not what he knows, or what he thinks but does not will. That essential nature of a person cannot possibly be changed into a different one by his thinking about mediation and salvation, only by new birth, which is being effected throughout a large part of his life. For he must be conceived, be born, and mature anew; and this is not effected by thinking and speaking, but by willing and acting.

[4] These matters have been stated because 'Pharaoh's firstborn' and 'the firstborn of the Egyptians' mean faith separated from charity, which - as has been shown in what has gone before - is not faith but the knowledge of such things as constitute faith. The reason why 'the firstborn of the Egyptians' represented that kind of faith is that the Egyptians, more than all others who constituted the representative Church after the time of the Flood, possessed a knowledge of the religious observances of the Church, 4749, 4964, 4966, 6004. At that time all ceremonies were representative of spiritual realities in heaven. The Egyptians had a greater knowledge of these than all others had; but in course of time they began to love merely their knowledge of them. They now began to think, as one finds at the present day, that the Church consisted entirely in knowing the kinds of things that have to do with the Church, and no longer in a charitable life. Thus they turned the whole order of the Church upside down; and once this had been turned upside down truths which are called the truths of faith were inevitably falsified. For if truths are applied in ways contrary to Divine order - as happens when they are applied to evils, or in the case of the Egyptians to acts of magic - they are no longer truths with those people but acquire from the evils to which they are applied the nature of falsities.

[5] Let the calf-worship among Egyptians serve to illustrate this. They knew what a calf represented, namely the good of charity. As long as they knew this and had this in mind, then when they saw calves, or when they prepared calves at charitable feasts, such as the ancients held, or later on when calves were used in sacrifices, they thought in a way that was sane and at the same time in company with the angels in heaven since a calf is for them the good of charity. But when they began to make calves of gold, place them in their temples, and worship them, they thought in an insane manner and at the same time in company with the hells. In that way they turned a true representative into a false one.