2144. 'In the oak-groves of Mamre' means the character of the perception. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'oak-groves', and also from the representation and meaning of 'Mamre'. What oak-groves in general represented and meant has been shown in Volume One, in 1442, 1443, and what the oak-grove of Mamre specifically represented and meant, in 1616, namely perceptions, though of a human kind such as spring from factual knowledge and from the initial rational concepts derived from that knowledge.

[2] What perception is, is totally unknown at the present day, for nobody today possesses the kind of perception that the ancient and especially the most ancient people possessed. The latter knew from perception whether a thing was good and consequently whether it was true. There was an influx from the Lord by way of heaven into the rational part of their minds, and from that influx when they thought about anything holy, they perceived instantly whether a thing was so or was not so. Later on such perception with mankind perished and people began to entertain heavenly ideas no more but only worldly and bodily ones; and when this happened the place of such perception was taken by conscience (which also is a kind of perception), for acting contrary to conscience and according to conscience is nothing else than discerning from conscience whether a thing is so or not so, or whether it ought to be done.

[3] But perception that goes with conscience does not originate in inflowing good but in truth which from earliest childhood has been implanted in the rational part of the mind in accordance with the holiness of people's worship, and after that has been confirmed; for that truth alone is believed by them to be good. Consequently conscience is a kind of perception, but it has its origin in truth such as this; and when charity and innocence are introduced into it by the Lord, the good that goes with that conscience is then brought into being. These few considerations show what perception is. Yet between perception and conscience there is a wide difference. See what has been stated about perception in Volume One, in 104, 125, 371, 483, 495, 503, 521, 536, 597, 607, 784, 865, 895, 1121, 1616; about the perception spirits and angels have, in 202, 203, 1008, 1383, 1384, 1390-1392, 1394, 1397, 1504; and about the learned not knowing what perception is, in 1387.

[4] As regards the Lord when He lived in the world, all of His thought sprang from Divine perception since He alone was a Divine and Celestial Man. For He has been the only one in whom Jehovah Himself was present and from whom His perception came, also dealt with in Volume One, in 1616, 1791. His perceptions became more and more interior the closer He came to union with Jehovah. The nature of His perception at this time becomes clear from what has been stated in Volume One, in 1616, about the oak-groves of Mamre; and then the nature of it when He perceived the things contained in this chapter is described in what follows below.

784. The implications of 'Jehovah closed the way behind him' meaning that man no longer had the kind of communication with heaven that the member of the celestial Church had had are as follows: The state of the Most Ancient Church was such that men had an inward communication with heaven, and so by way of heaven with the Lord. They were governed by love to the Lord, and people who are governed by love to the Lord are like angels, the only difference being that they are clothed with a [physical] body. Their interiors were unconcealed and lay open all the way from the Lord. But it was different with this new Church. It was governed not by love to the Lord, but in and through faith, by charity towards the neighbour. They could not have, as the most ancient people had, any inward communication, only external. It would take too long however to discuss the nature of these two kinds of communication. Everybody has a communication of some kind, including the wicked, through the angels residing with them, though there are different degrees of it, from fairly close to quite remote. Without it a person could not exist. The degrees of communication are unending. A spiritual man cannot possibly have the kind of communication that a celestial man has, the reason being that the Lord dwells in love, and less so in faith. This is what the present statement means about Jehovah closing the way behind him.

[2] Since those times heaven has never been open in the way it was for the member of the Most Ancient Church. Many people in later times have indeed talked to spirits and angels - for example, Moses, Aaron, and others - but they did so in a completely different way. This, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be dealt with later on. The reason why heaven has been closed is a very deep arcanum, as also is the reason why it is so closed nowadays that no one knows even of the existence of spirits, let alone that angels are residing with him. He imagines that when he is not with fellow men in the world and when thinking all by himself he is completely alone. In fact however he is constantly in the company of spirits who observe and perceive very accurately what a person is thinking and what he intends and devises, as accurately and clearly as if this manifested itself for all the world to see. Of this man is not at all directly conscious, so closed is heaven to him. Nevertheless it is utterly true. The reason he is not conscious of it is that if heaven were not in this way closed to him at a time when faith is non-existent with him, still less the truth of faith, and charity even less, he would stand in very great danger. This was the meaning also of Jehovah God's casting man out and causing cherubim to dwell at the east end of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword turning about to guard the way to the tree of life, ¹ dealt with already in Chapter 3:14. See also 301-307.

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