950. Clothed in linen clean and bright, signifies by means of the Divine truth or the Word from the spiritual sense. This is evident from the signification of "linen," as being truth, and in reference to the Lord or the Word, as being the Divine truth. This is called "clean" because it is genuine, and is called "bright" from the light in heaven, which light is brightness, since from it all things there are bright. The Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord is what appears to the eyes of angels as light, for the reason that the Divine truth enlightens their understanding; and what enlightens the understanding of angels is light to their eyes. Such is the Divine truth in heaven, and such is the Word in its spiritual sense; while Divine truth on the earth is such as the Word is in the sense of the letter, in which there are few genuine truths like those in heaven, but there are appearances of truth; and these only can the natural man receive. Nevertheless in these appearances of truth genuine truths like those in heaven lie stored up; for these are what are contained in the spiritual sense of the Word. All this makes clear that the words "there came out of the temple angels clothed in linen clean and bright" signify that the evils and falsities that have devastated the church were made manifest by the Divine truth, or the Word from its spiritual sense.

[2] There are many reasons why the spiritual sense of the Word has now been disclosed. First, because the churches in the Christian world have falsified all the sense of the letter of the Word, and this even to the destruction of the Divine truth in heaven, by which heaven has been closed up. In order, therefore, that heaven may be opened it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense is the Divine truth such as it is in heaven. For through the Word there is the conjunction of man with the Lord, and thus with heaven. When the Word is falsified even to the destruction of its genuine truth the conjunction perishes, and man is separated from heaven. In order, therefore, that he may again be conjoined with heaven, Divine truth such as it is in heaven has been revealed; and this has been confirmed by the spiritual sense of the Word, in which is that Divine truth. The second reason is that the falsities that have inundated and devastated the church can be dissipated only by means of the genuine truth laid open in the Word. Falsities and the evils therefrom and evils and the falsities therefrom can be seen in no other way than from truths themselves. For so long as genuine truths are not present, falsities and evils appear as in a kind of light. This light they have from confirmations by reasonings from the natural man, and by the sense of the letter explained and applied according to the appearances before that man. But when genuine truths are present, then first falsities and evils appear; for the light of heaven, which is in genuine truths, dissipates the delusive light of falsities and turns it into darkness. The third reason is, that, by means of the Divine truths of the Word that are in its spiritual sense, the New Church, which is meant by "the Holy Jerusalem" in Revelation, may be conjoined with heaven. For the Word is conjunction; but conjunction is effected only when man perceives the Word in a similar way as the angels perceive it. That "linen" signifies truth will be seen in the following article.

(Continuation: The First Commandment)

[3] "Thou shalt not make to thee other gods" includes not loving self and the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love to God, also love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself loves his own [proprium]; and as a man's own [proprium] is nothing but evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own [proprium], and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when one is sunk in the body and in his own [proprium] he is in corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in thick darkness as to higher things; while he who is raised up by the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be himself worshiped as a god. From this it follows that he who loves himself above all things worships other gods. The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the world; for there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's own [proprium]; therefore the world is loved because of one's own, and for the sake of one's own, because it is serviceable to it. The love of self means especially the love of domineering over others from the mere delight in ruling and for the sake of eminence, and not from the delight in uses and for the sake of the public good; while the love of the world means especially the love of possessing goods in the world from the mere delight in possession and for the sake of riches, and not from the delight in uses from these and for the sake of the good therefrom. These loves are both of them without limit, and rush on to infinity so far as opportunity is given.

71. And His voice as the voice of many waters, signifies Divine truth in ultimates. This is evident from the signification of a "voice" when it is from the Lord, as being Divine truth (See Arcana Coelestia 219, 220, 3563, 6971, 8813, 8914, and above, n. 55); and from the signification of "waters," as being the truths of faith, and also the knowledges of truth (of which see n. 2702, 3058, 5668, 8568, 10238); and since the knowledges of truths are in ultimates, "the voice as the voice of many waters," because it is said of the Lord, signifies Divine truth in ultimates. (That knowledges and scientifics are of the external or natural man, because they are in the light of the world, thus in ultimates, see Arcana Coelestia 5212, and in general, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n.51.) As it is not yet known that "waters" in the Word signify the truths of faith and the knowledges of truth, I would like, since this signification may possibly appear remote, to show here briefly that this is what is meant in the Word by "waters." This, moreover, is necessary, because without a knowledge of what "waters" signify, it cannot be known what baptism signifies, nor the "washings" in the Israelitish church so frequently referred to. "Waters" signify the truths of faith, as "bread" signifies the good of love. "Waters" and "bread" have this signification because things that pertain to spiritual nourishment are expressed in the sense of the letter by such things as belong to natural nourishment; for bread and water, which include in general all food and drink, nourish the body, while the truths of faith and the good of love nourish the soul. This also is from correspondence, for when "bread" and "water" are read of in the Word, angels, because they are spiritual, understand the things by which they are nourished, which are the goods of love and the truths of faith.

[2] But I will cite some passages from which it may be known that "waters" signify the truths of faith, likewise the knowledges of truth. Thus in Isaiah:

The earth is full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).

In the same:

Then with joy shall ye draw waters out of the fountains of salvation (Isaiah 12:3).

In the same:

He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly, bread shall be given him, and his waters shall be sure (Isaiah 33:15-16).

In the same:

The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst. I will open rivers upon the heights, and will place fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness into a pool of waters, and the dry land into a going forth of waters; that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand (Isaiah 41:17, 18, 20).

In the same:

I will pour waters upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring (Isaiah 44:3).

In the same:

Thy light shall arise in the darkness, and thy thick darkness be as the noonday; that thou mayest be like a watered garden, and like a going forth of waters, whose waters shall not prove false (Isaiah 58:10-11).

In Jeremiah:

My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves pits that hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

In the same:

Their nobles sent their little ones for water; they came to the pits and found no waters; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded (Jeremiah 14:3).

In the same:

They have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 17:13).

In the same:

They shall come with weeping, ¹ and with supplications will I lead them; I will lead them unto fountains of waters, in the way of right (Jeremiah 31:9).

In Ezekiel:

I will break the staff of bread, and they shall eat bread by weight and with carefulness; and they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment; that they may want bread and water, and be desolated, a man and a brother, and pine away for their iniquities (Ezekiel 4:16-17; 12:18-19; Isaiah 51:14).

In Amos:

Behold the days come, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the Word of Jehovah. They shall wander from sea to sea, they shall run to and fro, to seek the Word of Jehovah, and shall not find it; in that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst (Amos 8:11-13).

In Zechariah:

In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:8).

In David:

Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He will lead me to the waters of rest (Psalms 23:1-2).

In Isaiah:

They shall not thirst, He will cause waters to flow out of the rock for them, and He will cleave the rock, that the waters may flow out (Isaiah 48:21).

In David:

O God, early will I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth, I am weary without waters (Psalms 63:1).

In the same:

Jehovah sendeth His word, He maketh the wind to blow, that the waters may flow (Psalms 147:18).

In the same:

Praise Jehovah, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens (Psalms 148:4).

In John:

When Jesus came to the fountain of Jacob, a woman of Samaria came to draw water; Jesus said to her, Give Me to drink. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest ask of Him, and He would give thee living water. The woman said unto Him, From whence hast Thou living water? Jesus said to her, Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall not thirst for ever; and the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto everlasting life (John 4:7-15).

In the same:

Jesus said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:37-38).

In Revelation:

I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely (Revelation 21:6).

And in another place:

The angel showed unto him a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1).

And again:

The spirit and the bride say, Come. He that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come. And he that wisheth, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).

[3] These passages have been cited that it may be known that in the Word "waters" signify the truths of faith, consequently what is meant by the water of baptism, about which the Lord thus teaches in John:

Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

"Waters" here are the truths of faith, and "spirit" a life according to them (See New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, n. 202-209 seq.). Because it had not been known that "waters" signified the truths of faith, and that all things that were instituted among the sons of Israel were representative of spiritual things, it was believed that by the washings that were prescribed for them their sins were wiped away; yet this was not at all the case; those washings only represented purification from evils and falsities by means of the truths of faith and a life according to them (See Arcana Coelestia 3147[1-10], 5954, 10237, 10240). From this it is now clear that by "the voice," which was "as the voice of many waters," is meant Divine truth; as likewise in Ezekiel:

Behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and His voice was like the voice of many waters; and the earth was enlightened by His glory (Ezekiel 43:2).

And in David:

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters, Jehovah upon many waters (Psalms 29:3).

And in the following words in Revelation:

I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters (Revelation 14:2).

[4] I know that some will wonder why "waters" are mentioned in the Word, and not the truths of faith, since the Word is to teach man about his spiritual life; and since, if the expression the truths of faith had been used, instead of "waters," man would have known that the waters of baptism and of washings contribute nothing to the purifying of man from evils and falsities. But it is to be known, that the Word in order to be Divine, and at the same time useful to heaven and the church, must be wholly natural in the letter, for if it were not natural in the letter there could be no conjunction of heaven with the church by means of it; for it would be like a house without a foundation, and like a soul without a body, for ultimates enclose all interiors, and are a foundation for them (See above, n. 41). Man also is in ultimates, and upon the church in him heaven has its foundations. For this reason the style of the Word is such as it is; and as a consequence, when man from the natural things that are in the sense of the letter of the Word thinks spiritually, he is conjoined with heaven, and in no other way could he be conjoined with it.

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