197. This is why places and spaces in the Word (and everything that involves space) mean matters that involve state - distances, for instance, and nearness and remoteness, paths, journeys, emigrations, miles, stadia, plains, fields, gardens, cities, streets, motion, various kinds of measurement, length, breadth, height, and depth, and countless other things - for so many things that enter our thought from our world derive something from space and time.

[2] I should like only to highlight what length, breadth, and height mean in the Word. In this world we call something long and broad if it is long and broad spatially, and the same holds true for "high." In heaven, though, where thinking does not involve space, people understand length as a state of good and breadth as a state of truth, while height is their difference in regard to level (discussed above in 38). The reason these three dimensions are understood in this way is that length in heaven is from east to west, which is where people live who are in the good of love. Breadth in heaven is from south to north, where people live who are in truth because of what is good (see above, 148); and height in heaven applies to both in regard to their level. This is why qualities of this sort are meant in the Word by length and breadth and height as in Ezekiel 40-48, where the measurements are given of the new temple and the new earth, with its courts, rooms, doors, gates, windows, and surroundings, referring to the new church and the good and true things that are in it. So too all the measurements elsewhere.

[3] The New Jerusalem is similarly described in Revelation, as follows:

The city was laid out foursquare, its length the same as its breadth; and [the angel] measured the city with the reed at twelve thousand stadia; the length and breadth and height were equal. (Revelation 21:16)

Here the New Jerusalem means a new church, so its measurements mean attributes of that church, length referring to the good of its love, breadth to the truth that derives from that good, and height to both the good and the true in respect to their level. Twelve thousand stadia means everything good and true taken together. Otherwise, what would be the point of having its height be twelve thousand stadia like its length and its breadth?

We can see in David that breadth in the Word means truth:

Jehovah, you have not left me in the grasp of my enemy's hand; you have made my feet stand in a broad place. (Psalms 31:8)

I called on Jah from my constraint; he answered me in a broad place. (Psalms 118:5)

There are other passages as well; for example, Isaiah 8:8 and Habakkuk 1:6. It also holds true elsewhere.

25. Which are in sight of His throne, signifies presence and providence. This is evident from the signification of "sight," as being, when predicated of the Divine, presence, and providence therefrom (of which more in what follows); and from the signification of "throne of God," as being Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus heaven, because it is its receptacle (concerning which see Arcana Coelestia 5313, 6397). "Look" means presence, because by look or sight the understanding and thence thought are signified; and in the understanding everything that is thought stands forth as present. For this reason, those in the spiritual world with whom another desires to speak appear present provided the person had formed any idea of them from sight in the world, especially if this is true of both. This is why friends meet there, and also wives and husbands; the reason is that internal sight, which is the understanding, acts as one, in a spirit, with his external sight or sight of the eye; and as spaces in the spiritual world are not like spaces in the natural world, in that world what one desires to see is near, and what he does not desire to see is far off. From this now it is that "look" signifies presence.

(That "look" or "sight" signifies the understanding, see Arcana Coelestia 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 3863, 3869, 10705; and therefore signifies presence, n. 4723; and that spaces in heaven are not like spaces in the world, see i n the work on Heaven and Hell 191-199.) "Look," in respect to the Lord, as here, signifies His Divine presence, because the Lord knows all, and they, in turn, know the Lord who are in love and faith towards Him; consequently with such the Lord is present in the goods of love and in the truths of faith that are in them from Him. For these [goods and truths] are the Lord in heaven and in the church; since the things that proceed from the Lord are not merely His, but they are Himself

[2] From this it is clear how the Lord is in man; thus, how that is to be understood that he spoke in John:

Abide in Me, and I in you; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit (John 15:4-5).

In the same:

He that loveth Me keeps My word; and the Father and I will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 14:23).

In the same:

Jesus said to His disciples, Ye know the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you (John 14:17).

The "Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth," is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord; or what is the same, it is the Lord as to Divine truth; and "disciples" are all who are in goods and thence in truths; it is therefore said, "He shall be in you." In the same:

The Word became flesh and dwelt in you ¹ (John 1:14).

The Word, too, is Divine truth; and that the Word is the Lord is clear, since it is said that "the Word became flesh." (That the "Word" signifies Divine truth, and signifies the Lord, see Arcana Coelestia 4692, 5075, 9987) "Look" here also signifies providence, because all presence of the Lord is providence (as may appear from what is said and shown in the small work on The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 267-279; and in the work on Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell 9, n. 9, 12, 143, 145).

Poznámky pod čarou: