3061. Jehovah God of my lord Abraham. That this signifies of the Divine Itself which is the Father, with the Divine Human which is the Son (that is, communication), is evident from what has been so often said and shown above, namely, that “Jehovah God” is the Divine Itself of the Lord, which is called the “Father;” and that by Abraham is represented His Divine Human (n. 2833, 2836). It may be seen above, that in the Word of the Old Testament “Jehovah” is the Lord Himself (n. 1736, 1815, 2921); and that the Most Ancient Church before the flood and the Ancient Church after the flood understood by “Jehovah” no other than the the Lord, (n. 1343, 1676, 1990, 2016, 3035). Also that in the Lord is the Trinity-the Divine Itself, the Divine Human, and the proceeding Divine Holy-and these are a one (n. 1999, 2149, 2156, 2288, 2329, 2447). That all the Trinity in the Lord is Jehovah (n. 2156, 2329); and that each and all things in the Lord are Jehovah (n. 1902, 1921). That the Lord is one with the Father, and that no other is understood in heaven by the Father (n. 14, 15, 1725, 1729, 1733, 1815, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2803, 3038). That the Lord is the universal heaven, for He is the all there; and that from Him is the all of innocence, of peace, of love, of charity, of mercy, of conjugial love; and all good and truth. That Moses and the Prophets, thus the Word in every particular, is concerning Him; and that all the rites of the church represented Him (n. 2751). That the Lord as to the Divine Human is called the “Son” (n. 2628). That the Divine Human of the Lord was not only conceived, but was also born of His Divine Essence, which is Jehovah (n. 2798); and that thereby the Lord as to the Human was made Jehovah, and Life of Himself (n. 1603, 1737).

[2] That the Lord was from eternity, is plainly evident from the Word (see n. 2803), although He was afterwards born in time; for He spoke by Moses and the Prophets; He likewise had appeared to many, and it is there said that He was Jehovah. But this deepest of arcana could be revealed to none but those who are in Divine perception, thus to scarcely any but the men of the Most Ancient Church, who were celestial and in this perception. From these I have heard that Jehovah Himself was the Lord as to the Divine Human when He descended into heaven and flowed in through heaven; for heaven represents one man as to all his members, and is therefore also called the Grand Man (n. 684, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3021). The Divine Itself in heaven, that is, in the Grand Man, was the Divine Human, and was Jehovah Himself thus clothed with the Human.

[3] But when mankind became such that the Divine Itself, clothed as the Divine Human, could no longer affect them (that is, when Jehovah could no longer come to man, because man had so far removed himself), then Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the Divine Essence, descended and took upon Himself a Human, by conception Divine, and by birth from a virgin such as is that of another man; but this He expelled, and by Divine means made Divine the Human that was born, from which proceeds all the Holy. Thus the Divine Human became an essence by itself which fills the universal heaven, and which also makes it possible for those to be saved who could not be saved before. This then is the Lord, who as to the Divine Human is alone Man, and from whom man has it that he is man (n. 49, 288, 477, 565, 1894).

1594. And they were separated, a man from his brother. That this signifies that those things cause the separation, follows from what has been said. What “a man, a brother” signifies was stated above at verse 8, namely, union; and therefore “to be separated, a man from his brother,” signifies disunion. What disunites the external man from the internal, man knows not, and this for many reasons. It is partly owing to his not knowing, or if told, to his not believing, that there is any internal man; and partly to his not knowing, or if told, to his not believing, that the love of self and its cupidities are what cause the disunion; and also the love of the world and its cupidities, but not so much as the love of self.

[2] The reason why man does not know, and if told, does not believe, that there is an internal man, is that he lives in corporeal and sensuous things, which cannot possibly see what is interior. Interior things can see what is exterior, but never exterior things what is interior. Take the case of sight: the internal sight can see what the external sight is; but the external sight cannot see what the internal sight is; or again, the intellectual and the rational can perceive what the faculty of memory-knowledge is, but not the reverse. A further cause is that man does not believe that there is a spirit which is separated from the body at death; and scarcely that there is an internal life which is called the soul; for when the sensuous and corporeal man thinks about the separation of the spirit from the body, it strikes him as an impossible thing, because he places life in the body, and confirms himself in this idea from the fact that brute animals also live, but still do not live after death; besides many other things. All this is a consequence of his living in corporeal and sensuous things; which kind of life, viewed in itself, scarcely differs from the life of brute animals, with the single exception that a man has ability to think and reason about the things he meets with; but upon this faculty, which brute animals have not, he does not then reflect.

[3] This cause, however, is not what most disunites the external man from the internal, for a very great part of mankind are in such unbelief, and the most learned more than the simple. But what disunites is principally the love of self; the love of the world, also, but not so much as the love of self. The reason why man does not know this is that he lives in no charity, and when he is living in no charity it cannot be apparent to him that a life of the love of self and its cupidities is so contrary to heavenly love. There is also in the love of self and its cupidities something glowing, and consequently delightful, which so affects the life that the man hardly knows otherwise than that therein consists eternal happiness itself; and therefore many place eternal happiness in becoming great after the life of the body, and in being served by others, even by angels; while they themselves desire to serve no one, except for the sake of self, with a hidden view to being served themselves. Their saying that they desire to serve the Lord alone is false, for they who are in the love of self desire to have even the Lord serve them, and so far as this is not done they fall back. Thus they carry in their heart the desire to become lords themselves, and to reign over the universe. It is easy to conceive what kind of government this would be, when many, nay, when all, were like this. Is not that government infernal in which everyone loves himself more than any other? This lies hidden in the love of self. From this we can see the nature of the love of self, and we can see it also from the fact that there is concealed within it hatred against all who do not subject themselves to it as slaves; and because there is hatred, there are also revenge, cruelties, deceits, and many other wicked things.

[4] But mutual love, which alone is heavenly, consists in a man’s not only saying of himself, but acknowledging and believing, that he is utterly unworthy, and that he is something vile and filthy, which the Lord from His infinite mercy continually withdraws and holds back from hell, into which the man continually strives, nay longs, to precipitate himself. His acknowledging and believing this, is because it is true; not that the Lord, or any angel, desires him to acknowledge and believe it for the sake of his submission; but that he may not exalt himself, seeing that he is even such; for this would be as if excrement should call itself pure gold, or a fly of the dunghill should say that it is a bird of paradise. So far therefore as a man acknowledges and believes himself to be such as he really is, he recedes from the love of self and its cupidities, and abhors himself. So far as he does this, he receives heavenly love from the Lord, that is, mutual love, which consists in the desire to serve all. These are they who are meant by “the least,” who become in the Lord’s kingdom the greatest (see Matthew 20:26-28; Luke 9:46-48).

[5] From what has been said we can see that what principally disjoins the external man from the internal is the love of self; and that what principally unites them is mutual love, which love is never possible until the love of self recedes, for these are altogether contrary to each other. The internal man is nothing else than mutual love. Man’s very spirit or soul is the interior man that lives after death; and it is organic, for it is adjoined to the body while the man is living in this world. This interior man, that is, the soul or spirit, is not the internal man; but the internal man is in it when mutual love is in it. The things that are of the internal man are the Lord’s; so that it may be said that the internal man is the Lord. But because to an angel or a man while he lives in mutual love, the Lord gives a heavenly Own, so that it appears no otherwise than that he does what is good of himself, the internal man is predicated of man, as if it were his. But he who is in mutual love acknowledges and believes that all that is good and true is not his, but the Lord’s; and his ability to love another as himself-and what is more, if he is like the angels, his ability to love another more than himself-he acknowledges and believes to be the Lord’s gift; from which gift and its happiness he recedes, so far as he recedes from the acknowledgment that it is the Lord’s.