186. That thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead, signifies the quality of their thought, in that they think themselves to be alive, because they are living a moral life, when yet they are dead. This is evident from the signification of "name," as being quality of state (See above, n. 148); also from the signification of "living," as being to have spiritual life (of which presently); also from the signification of "being dead," as being not to have spiritual life, but only moral life without it. This is "being dead," because in the Word "life" signifies the life of heaven with man, which is there also called "life eternal;" while "death" signifies the life of hell, which life in the Word is called "death," because it is the privation of the life of heaven. Here, therefore, "thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead," signifies thinking that they have spiritual life, and thus are saved, because they are living a moral life, when yet they are spiritually dead. But how this is to be understood can be seen from what was said above n. 182 of each life, spiritual and moral, namely, that moral life apart from spiritual life is the life of the love of self and the love of the world, while moral life that is from spiritual life is a life of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; this life is the life of heaven, but the other life is what is called spiritual death. When this is understood (See above, n. 182), it can be known what is meant here by "being alive and yet being dead."

[2] That "to live," or "being alive," signifies spiritual life in man, and "being dead" deprivation of that life, and damnation, can be seen from many passages in the Word, of which I will cite the following. Thus in Ezekiel:

When I shall say unto the wicked, In dying he ¹ shall die, and thou shalt not give him warning, nor speak to warn the wicked one from his evil way, that he may be made alive, the wicked shall die in his iniquity. But if thou shalt give warning to the wicked, and he shall not ² turn back from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; yet hast thou delivered thy soul. So if thou shalt give warning to a righteous man that he sin no more, ³ and he sin not, living he shall live, because he took warning (Ezekiel 3:18-21).

Here "dying he shall die" is to perish in eternal death, which is damnation, for it is said of the wicked; and "living he shall live" is to enjoy eternal life, which is salvation, for it is said of those who repent, and of the righteous.

[3] In the same:

Ye have profaned Me with My people, to kill the souls that should not die, and to keep alive the souls that should not live, whilst ye lie to My people, to them that hear a lie (Ezekiel 13:19).

This treats of the falsification of truth, which is meant by "Ye have profaned Me with My people," and by "ye lie to the people, to them that hear a lie." Here "a lie" signifies what is false, and what is falsified. "To kill the souls that should not die" is to deprive them of the life that comes from truths; and "to keep alive the souls that should not live" is to persuade them that life eternal is from falsities. That this is here meant by "making alive" is evident from the preceding verse there.

[4] In David:

Behold the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine (Psalms 33:18-19).

In the same:

Thou hast delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living (Psalms 56:13).

In Jeremiah:

Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death (Jeremiah 21:8).

In John:

Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My Word hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but shall pass from death into life (John 5:24).

[5] It is clear that in these passages "death" means damnation, and "life" salvation. Because "death" is damnation it is also hell, for which reason hell is commonly called "death" in the Word, as in these passages. In Isaiah:

Hell will not confess Thee, nor will death praise Thee; they that go down into the pit will not hope on Thy truth. The living, the living, he shall confess Thee (Isaiah 38:18-19).

In the same:

We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have made a vision (Isaiah 28:15).

In Hosea:

I will ransom them from the hand of hell; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plague! O hell, I will be thy perdition! (Hosea 13:14).

In David:

In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in hell who shall confess Thee? (Psalms 6:5).

In the same:

The cords of death compassed me, and the cords of hell (Psalms 18:4-5).

In the same:

Like sheep shall they be laid in hell; death shall feed them (Psalms 49:14).

In the same:

Jehovah, thou hast brought up my soul from hell; Thou hast made Me to live (Psalms 30:3).

In Revelation:

A pale horse, and he that sat upon him whose name was death, and hell will follow ⁴ him (Revelation 6:8).

And in another place:

Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

[6] As "death" signifies damnation and hell, its meaning in the following passages is evident. In Isaiah:

He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovih will wipe away tears from off all faces (Isaiah 25:8).

In the same:

That he might give the wicked to their sepulcher, and the rich in their deaths (Isaiah 53:9).

In David:

Jehovah, Thou liftest me up from the gates of death (Psalms 9:13).

Thou shalt not be afraid for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the death that wasteth at noonday (Psalms 91:5-6).

In John:

If any one keep My word he shall never see death John 8:51).

In Revelation:

He that overcometh shall not be destroyed in the second death (Revelation 2:11).

In another place:

Many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter (Revelation 8:11).

In the same:

The second angel poured out a bowl upon the sea, and it became blood as of one dead, whence every living soul died in the sea (Revelation 16:3).

[7] From these passages it can be seen what is meant by "the dead," namely, those who have not in themselves the life of heaven, and consequently are in evils and in falsities therefrom. These are meant also in the following passages. In David:

They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead (Psalms 106:28).

In the same:

He hath made me to sit in darkness, like the dead of eternity (Psalms 143:3).

In Matthew:

One of His disciples said, Lord, suffer me first to go away and bury my father. Jesus said, Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead (Matthew 8:21-22).

On account of this signification of "the dead":

The sons of Aaron were forbidden to touch any dead body (Leviticus 21:2-3, 11);

Likewise the priests, the Levites (Ezekiel 44:25);

Likewise the Nazirite (Numbers 6:6-7);

And whoever of the sons of Israel touched the dead must be cleansed by the water of separation (Numbers 19:11-22 end).

[8] As "death" signifies damnation and hell, so on the other hand "life" signifies salvation and heaven; as in the passages that follow. In Matthew:

Narrow is the gate and straitened is the way which leadeth unto life (Matthew 7:14).

In the same:

It is good to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire (Matthew 18:9).

If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17).

In John:

They shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life (John 5:29).

From this it is that salvation is called "eternal life" (as in Matthew 19:16, 29; 25:46; Mark 10:30, 31; Luke 10:25; 18:18, 30; John 3:14-16, 36; 17:2, 3; and other places). For the same reason heaven is called "the land of the living," as in David:

"the land of the living," as in David:

O Jehovah, Thou art my reliance, my part in the land of the living (Psalms 142:5).

In the same:

That thou mayest see the good of Jehovah in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13).

In the same:

O bless our God, ye peoples, who places our soul among the living (Psalms 66:8, 9).

[9] That the Lord alone has life in Himself, and that even man has life from Him, the Lord Himself teaches in the following passages. In John:

As the Father raiseth up the dead and maketh them alive, even so the Son maketh alive whom He will. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:21, 26).

In the same:

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he die, shall live (John 11:25, 26).

In the same:

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

In the same:

I am the bread of life that cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world (John 6:33, 35, 47, 48).

From this it is that the Lord is said to be "Living" and "the Living One" (Revelation 4:9, 10; 5:14; 7:2; 10:6). The same is said of Jehovah in many passages in the prophets.

[10] And as the Lord is life, so all have life from Him; this also the Lord teaches. In John:

He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life (John 3:36).

In the same:

Jesus said, I came that the sheep may have life. I give unto them eternal life (John 10:10, 28).

In the same:

He that believeth on Me, though he die, shall live (John 11:25, 26).

In the same:

Ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life (John 5:40).

[11] "Life" signifies the Lord, and thence salvation and heaven, because all of life is from one only Fountain, and that only Fountain of life is the Lord, while angels and men are merely forms receiving life from Him. The Life itself that proceeds from the Lord and fills heaven and the world, is the life of His love, and in heaven this appears as light, and because this light is life it enlightens the minds of angels, and enables them to understand and be wise. From this it is that the Lord calls Himself not only "the Life" but also "the Light." As in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man coming into the world (John 1:1, 4-12).

In the same:

Jesus said, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

In David:

Jehovah, with Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light (Psalms 36:9).

The light which is life from the Lord in heaven is there called Divine truth, because it shines in the minds of those who are there, and thence shines before their eyes. From this it is that in the Word "light" signifies Divine truth, and intelligence and wisdom therefrom, and that the Lord Himself is called "the Light." (But this is shown more fully in the work on Heaven and Hell 126-140, 275, which see.)

[12] The Lord is the source [a quo] of everything of life, because He is the sun of the angelic heaven, and the light of that sun is Divine truth, and its heat is Divine good; the two are life. From that origin is all life in heaven and in the world. The spiritual that flows into nature, and gives life there, is from no other source; but it gives life according to reception. (On this also see the work on Heaven and Hell 116-125.) From this it is now evident why it is that the Lord calls Himself "the Life," and why it is that those are said to have life and to live who receive light which is Divine truth, from the Lord, and why those who do not receive it are said not to live, but to be dead. (That there is one only Fountain of life, and that the Lord is that Fountain, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 9; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 278.)

Poznámky pod čarou:

427. Till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads, signifies that those who are in truths from good are first to be separated. This is evident from the signification of "to seal," as being to distinguish and separate (of which presently); also from the signification of "the servants of God," as being those who are in truths from good (of which see above, n. 6); also from the signification of "forehead," as being the good of love. It is from correspondence that "forehead" means the good of love; for all things pertaining to man in the whole body, whether within or without, correspond to heaven, for the universal heaven in the sight of the Lord is as one Man, so arranged as to correspond to each and all the things in man. The whole face, where the organs of sight, smell, hearing, and taste, are situated, corresponds to the affections and the thoughts therefrom in general, the eyes corresponding to the understanding, the nose to perception, the ears to hearkening and obedience, and the taste to the desire to know and be wise; but the forehead corresponds to the good of love, from which all these are, for it forms the highest part of the face, and directly encloses the front and primary part of the brain, which is the seat of man's intellect. This is why the Lord looks upon angels in the forehead, and the angels look to the Lord through the eyes; this is so because the forehead corresponds to the love, from which the Lord looks upon them, and the eyes correspond to the understanding from which they look to the Lord; for the Lord grants Himself to be seen through the influx of love into their understanding. (Respecting this see in the work on Heaven and Hell 145, 151; and that The Universal Heaven in its Whole Complex answers to One Man, n. 68-86; and that There is thence a Correspondence of all Things of Heaven with all Things of Man, n 87-102.) This makes clear the signification of "being sealed on the forehead," namely, to be in the good of love to the Lord from the Lord, and thereby to be distinguished and separated from those who are not in that love; for the Lord looks upon such in the forehead, and fills them with the good of love, from which they look to the Lord by thought from affection. The rest cannot be looked upon by the Lord in the forehead, for they turn away from Him and turn themselves to the opposite love, by which they are filled and attracted. (That everyone in the spiritual world, and man as well in respect to his spirit, turns the face to the ruling love, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-144, 153, 552)

[2] "To be sealed" means not to be sealed, but to be reduced to such a state that their quality may be recognized, and that they may thus be conjoined with those who are in a like state and separated from those who are in a dissimilar state. This is signified by "to be sealed," and by a "sign" in the following passages. In Ezekiel:

Jehovah said to the man clothed in linen, Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a sign upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and groan over all the abominations done in the midst thereof. And pass ye through the city after him and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; but come not near against any man upon whom is the sign (Ezekiel 9:4, 6).

This also treats of the separation of the good from the evil; and "to mark on the forehead" has a similar signification as in this passage in Revelation, namely, to be distinguished and separated from the evil and to be conjoined to the good; the casting out and damnation of the evil are treated of afterwards. Those who are in good are described by those "that sigh and groan over all the abominations done in the midst of the city Jerusalem;" "those that sigh and groan over abominations" mean those who are not in evils and in falsities therefrom, "sighing and groaning over them" signifying aversion and grief because of them, "Jerusalem" meaning the church, and "city" the doctrine. Afterwards that they should "pass through the city after him and smite, and the eye should not spare," describes the casting out and damnation of the evil; "to smite and kill" signifying damnation, for spiritual death, which is damnation, is signified in the Word by natural death.

[3] In Isaiah:

He shall come for bringing together all nations and tongues, that they may come and see My glory. And I will set a sign upon them (Isaiah 66:18, 19).

This is said of the Lord, and of a new church to be established by Him, and thus of a new heaven and a new earth (as is evident from verse 22 that chapter). "Bringing together all nations and tongues" has a similar signification, as:

Gathering together the elect from the four winds (Matthew 24:31);

"to gather together" signifies to receive to Himself those who are His own; "nations" signify those who are in good, and "tongues" those who are in a life according to doctrine; "to come and see the glory of the Lord" signifies to be illustrated by Divine truth, and thus to enjoy heavenly joy; for "the glory of the Lord" signifies Divine truth, and illustration and joy from it; "to set a sign upon them" signifies to distinguish and separate them from the evil and conjoin them to the good.

[4] It is written of Cain:

That Jehovah set a sign upon him that no one might slay him (Genesis 4:15).

He who does not know this arcanum of the Word that the persons named in its histories mean in the spiritual sense things, or that every person there mentioned represents and thence signifies something of the church and of heaven, can know nothing beyond the historical things of the letter, in which nothing more of the Divine appears than in other histories; and yet there is in the Word, both prophetical and historical, and in each and all things of it, something Divine that does not appear in the letter except to those who are in the spiritual sense and who know it. The spiritual arcanum in the history of Cain and Abel is this: "Abel" represents the good of charity, and "Cain" the truth of faith, and that good and that truth are called in the Word "brethren;" and the truth of faith is called "the firstborn" because the truths that are afterwards to become truths of faith are first acquired and stored up in the memory, that from it, as from a storehouse, good may draw what it may conjoin to itself and make the truths to be truths of faith. For truth does not become of faith until man wills it and does it; but so far as man does this the Lord conjoins him to Himself and to heaven, and from love flows in with good, and through good into the truths that the man has acquired from childhood, and conjoins them to good and makes them to be truths of faith; before this they are nothing but the cognitions and knowledges, in which as yet man has no other faith than such as he has in things heard from another, from which he can withdraw if he afterwards thinks differently; therefore this faith is not his own but that of another in him; and yet if a man's faith is to remain with him after death it must be his own faith; and it becomes his own when he sees, wills, and does what he believes, for it then enters into the man and forms his spirit, and comes to be of his affection and thought; for man's spirit in its essence is nothing but his affection and thought.

[5] That which is of the affection is called good, and that which is of the thought therefrom is called truth; and man believes nothing to be true except what is of his affection, but of the interior affection that pertains to his spirit; consequently that which a man thinks from interior affection is his faith, and whatever other things he holds in his memory, whether he has drawn them from the Word or from the doctrine of the church, by reading or from preachings, or from his own understanding, are not faith, however much he thinks that they are, and it is at present said and believed that they are. This first-begotten and primary thing is what "Cain" represents and signifies in this history, for Cain was the first-begotten. When this, and not willing and doing the truth, that is, living according to it, is believed to be the faith that saves man, then there springs up a pernicious heresy that faith alone saves, whatever the life may be, and that there may be faith apart from the life; and yet this is not faith, but mere knowledge residing outside of man in his memory, and not within him in the life. If this is called faith it is historical faith, which is having in oneself another's faith, and such a faith does not receive life until the man sees that what he has thus imbibed is true, and this he first sees when he wills and does it. When that heresy prevails, charity, which is the good of life, is destroyed, and at length rejected as not essential to salvation. This was represented by Cain's slaying his brother Abel; for faith and charity, or the truth of faith and the good of charity, are called in the Word "brethren," as was said above.

[6] That "Jehovah set a sign upon Cain lest he should be slain" signifies that He distinguished him from others and preserved him, because saving faith cannot be given unless historical faith precedes, and this is knowing from others the things of the church and heaven; in a word, it is a knowledge of such things as faith afterwards consists of; for unless man from infancy imbibed truths from the Word, or from the doctrine of the church, or from preachings, he would be empty, and into an empty man no operation could fall, and no influx out of heaven from the Lord could come, for the Lord operates and flows in through good into truths with man, and conjoins these, and thus makes charity and faith to be one. From this can be seen the signification of "Jehovah set a sign upon Cain that no one might slay him, and that whosoever should slay him vengeance should be taken on him sevenfold." Moreover, those who are in mere historical faith, that is, in a knowledge of such things as constitute faith, who are the persons or which is the faith meant by "Cain," these are preserved also because they can teach truths from the Word to others, which they do from memory.

[7] Because the "forehead" corresponds to the good of love, and therefore the Lord from Divine love looks upon angels and men in the forehead, as was said above, it was commanded that a plate of pure gold, upon which was written "Holiness to Jehovah," should be placed upon the miter of Aaron on the forehead, concerning which it is thus written in Moses:

Thou shalt make a plate, pure gold, and grave upon it with the engravings of a signet, Holiness to Jehovah. And thou shalt put it on a thread of blue; over against the faces of the miter it shall be, that it may be upon Aaron's forehead, and may be constantly on his forehead, that they may have acceptance before Jehovah (Exodus 28:36-38).

For Aaron as high priest represented the Lord in relation to the good of Divine love, therefore his garments represented such things as proceed from that love; the miter represented intelligence and wisdom; and the front part of it love, from which are intelligence and wisdom; therefore the plate of pure gold, upon which was engraved "Holiness to Jehovah," was placed upon a thread of blue; "pure gold" of which the plate was made signifies the good of celestial love; the "blue" of which the thread was made, on which was the plate, signifies the good of spiritual love (spiritual love is the love of truth); "the engraving of a signet" signifies endurance to eternity; "Holiness to Jehovah" signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human from which proceeds all the holiness of heaven and the church; these were upon the front of the miter which was upon Aaron's head, because the "miter" signifies the like as the head, namely Divine wisdom, and the "forehead" the Divine good of love. (That Aaron represented the Lord in relation to the good of love, see Arcana Coelestia, 9806, 9946, 10017; that "blue" signifies the love of truth, n. 9466, 9687, 9833; and the "miter" signifies intelligence and wisdom, n. 9827)

[8] Because the "forehead" signifies the good of love, the sons of Israel were commanded to bind the commandment respecting love to Jehovah upon their foreheads, as is taught in Moses:

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And thou shalt bind these words for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets before thine eyes (Deuteronomy 6:5 (Deuteronomy 6:6, 8; 11:18; Exodus 13:9, 16).

It is said "they shall be for frontlets before the eyes," as a representation that the Lord looks upon angels and men in the forehead, because from Divine love, and grants to angels and men to look at Him from intelligence and wisdom, for the "eyes" signify the understanding, and all man's understanding is from the good of his love and according to that which he receives from the Lord. That they bound these words upon the hand also represented ultimate things, because the hands are the ultimates of the powers of man's soul; therefore "upon the forehead and upon the hand" signifies in things first and last, and "first and last" signifies all things (as may be seen above, n. 417. This commandment was so bound because "on it hang the law and the prophets," that is, the whole Word, consequently all things of heaven and the church:

That on this commandment hang the law and the prophets the Lord teaches (Matthew 22:35-38, 40).

This also makes clear why kings, in former times and also at present, when crowned, were anointed with oil upon the forehead and upon the hand, and what this signifies; for kings formerly represented the Lord in relation to Divine truth, and because this is received in the good of love that flows in from the Lord, therefore they were anointed upon the forehead and upon the hand, the "oil" also with which they were anointed signifying the good of love. This is why kings in the Word signify those who are in truths from good, and in an abstract sense truths from good (See above, n. 31). From this it can be seen what "a seal upon the forehead" means, as also elsewhere in Revelation (Revelation 9:4; 14:1; 22:3, 4).

[9] But on the contrary, the "forehead" signifies that which is opposite to the good of love, namely, the evil of love, and thus what is hard, obstinate, shameless, and infernal. It signifies what is hard in Isaiah:

Thou art hard, for thy neck is a sinew of iron, and thy forehead brass (Isaiah 48:4).

It signifies what is stubborn in Ezekiel:

The house of Israel will not hearken unto Me; for the whole house of Israel are stubborn in forehead and hard in heart (Ezekiel 3:7, 8).

It signifies what is shameless in Jeremiah:

The forehead of a harlot remained to thee, thou didst refuse to be ashamed (Jeremiah 3:3).

It signifies what is infernal in Revelation (Revelation 13:16; 14:9-11; 16:2; 17:5; 19:20; 20:4); for as the good of love is heavenly, and thence mild, patient, and modest, so the evil opposite to that good is infernal, hard, stubborn, and shameless.