5202. 'And behold, seven other cows were coming up after them out of the river' means falsities belonging to the natural which are also at the boundary. This is clear from the meaning of 'cows' as the truths belonging to the natural, dealt with just above in 518, so that in the contrary sense 'cows' means falsities (for most things in the Word have a contrary meaning that can be recognized from the genuine one, and therefore since truths of a natural kind are meant by 'cows' in the genuine sense, falsities of the same kind, thus falsities within the natural, are meant in the contrary sense); and from the meaning of 'the river' as the boundary, also dealt with above, in 5196, 5197. The presence of those falsities at the boundary is also evident from the use of the words 'came up out of the river', for coming or going up is used in reference to an advance made from what is exterior towards things that are interior, 3084, 4579, 4969.

[2] The implications of this, since it forms the subject in what follows, must be stated here. The previous chapter dealt with the exterior natural, with the fact that some impressions were the kind that belonged to the understanding while others were the kind that belonged to the will. The former were accepted, but the latter were cast aside. Impressions such as belonged to the understanding were represented by 'the cupbearer', and those such as belonged to the will by 'the baker'. Also, because the kind belonging to the understanding were accepted, they were also made subordinate to the internal natural. These were the matters that were dealt with in the previous chapter, in which the first stage in the rebirth of the natural is described.

[3] In the present chapter however the subject is the influx of the celestial of the spiritual into the impressions in the natural which were retained, that is to say, the impressions belonging to the understanding part there, which are meant now by 'the cows beautiful in appearance and fat-fleshed'. But as the natural cannot undergo any rebirth solely so far as ideas belonging to the understanding are concerned, desires belonging to the will must also be involved; for every individual part of the natural, to be anything at all, must include some element belonging to the understanding and at the same time another element belonging to the will. But because the will element that was present previously has been cast aside a new one must therefore enter in to replace it. This new element is received from the celestial of the spiritual which, together with its influx into the natural, is the subject in the present chapter. What the natural is like in this state is described in the internal sense - a state in which the truths there have been banished by falsities, so that the natural has been left exposed to the celestial of the spiritual. These are the considerations that are meant by the devouring of the good cows by the bad cows and the swallowing up of the full heads of grain by the empty ones, and after this by Joseph's making provision for all the land of Egypt. But in the Lord's Divine mercy more regarding these matters will be stated in what follows.

[4] They are, what is more, the kind of considerations that scarcely fall within the area of light within the human understanding, for they are the arcana of regeneration which in themselves are countless but about which a person knows barely anything at all. The person with whom good is present is undergoing rebirth every moment, from earliest childhood to the final stage of his life in the world, and after that for ever. This is happening to him not only interiorly but also exteriorly; and this rebirth involves processes that are amazing. They are processes which for the most part constitute angelic wisdom, and that wisdom, as is well known, is indescribable, embracing such things as ear has not heard, nor eye seen, and such as have never entered man's thought. ¹ The internal sense deals with such matters and so is suited to angelic wisdom; and when this sense passes into the sense of the letter it becomes suited to human wisdom, and in an unseen way it stirs the affections of those who, motivated by good, have the desire to know truths received from the Word.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1563. That 'Lot also who went with Abram' means the external man residing in the Lord is clear from the representation of 'Lot' as the sensory man, or what amounts to the same, the external man. It is well known to everyone in the Church that everybody has an internal and an external, or what amounts to the same, that man is internal and external. For these matters, see what has appeared already in 978, 994, 995, 1015. The external man receives his life principally from the internal, that is, from his spirit or soul. From there comes his life itself in general, which life cannot be received by the external man in a detailed and distinct manner unless his organic vessels are opened which are to serve as recipients of the particular and individual parts of the internal man. Those organic vessels that are to serve as recipients are not opened except by means of the senses, chiefly those of hearing and sight. And as they are so opened the internal man is able to flow in with the particular and individual parts. They are opened by means of the senses through facts and cognitions, as well as through pleasures and delights - the former being things of the understanding, the latter those of the will

[2] From these considerations it becomes clear that as an inevitable result facts and cognitions which cannot agree with spiritual truths will worm their way into the external man, and that pleasures and delights which cannot agree with celestial goods will worm their way in, even as all those things do which regard bodily, worldly, and earthly things as ends in themselves - which things when regarded as ends drag the external man outwards and downwards and so remove the external man from the internal man. For this reason unless such things have first been dispelled the internal man cannot in any way agree with the external, and therefore before the internal man is able to agree with the external such things have to be removed. The removal or separation of those things in the Lord is represented and meant by Lot's separation from Abram.