6273. 'For Manasseh was the firstborn' means since good does indeed occupy the first place. This is clear from the representation of 'Manasseh' as good belonging to the will, dealt with before; and from the meaning of 'the birthright' as the prior and higher position, dealt with in 3325, so that 'the firstborn' is the one who occupies the first place. Is anyone incapable of seeing from natural light alone, provided a superior light brightens it a little, that good occupies the first place, as also do the intentions in a person's will, and that truth occupies the second, as also do the thoughts in his mind? Is anyone also incapable of seeing that the intentions in a person's will cause him to think in one particular way and no other, consequently that the good he possesses causes him to think that this or that is true; so that truth occupies the second place and good the first? Think and reflect on whether truth that composes faith can take root anywhere else than in good, or whether faith other than that which has taken root there is faith. From this you will be able to decide which is the primary or essential element for the Church, that is, for the person in whom the Church exists.

6299. 'Saying, In you will Israel bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh' means so that its own spiritual may reside in the truth of the understanding and the good of the will. This is clear from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with in 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5873; and from the representation of 'Ephraim' as truth belonging to the understanding, and of 'Manasseh' as good belonging to the will, both dealt with above. So that the spiritual, which is 'Israel', may reside in them is what the words 'In you will he bless' and 'May God make you' mean.

[2] What this really means - that the spiritual, represented by 'Israel', may exist within the truth of the understanding and the good of the will, which are 'Ephraim and Manasseh' - is that the spiritual good represented by 'Israel' is the spiritual part of the internal Church, whereas the truth and good represented by 'Ephraim and Manasseh' are part of the external Church, see above in 6296. So that what is internal may be the internal part of the Church it must of necessity reside in the external part of it, for the external serves as the foundation on which the internal must stand and is the receptacle into which the internal must flow. For this reason the natural, which is the external, must of necessity be regenerated, for if it is not, the internal has no foundation or receptacle; and if it has no foundation or receptacle it is completely destroyed. This then is what is meant by 'its own spiritual may reside in the truth of the understanding and the good of the will'.

[3] Let the following example serve to shed light on this particular matter. The actual affection that charity arouses, that is to say, the calm and blissful feeling a person enjoys when he does good to his neighbour without thought of any reward, is the internal aspect of the Church. But willing it and doing it out of concern for truth, that is, because the Word prescribes it, are the external aspect of the Church. If the natural or the external is not in accord, that is, does not will or perform that action because it sees no reward and so nothing for itself in it - for such self-interest resides in the natural or external man through heredity and his own actions - the internal has no foundation or receptacle in harmony with it. Instead it has that which either turns aside, perverts, or smothers its inflow, and for that reason the internal is destroyed. That is to say, it is closed and blocked off, so that nothing from heaven can come through by way of the internal into the natural, apart from some ordinary degree of light through chinks all around which enables the person to think, will, and speak. But that ability acts in accord with what is in the natural, thus in favour of what is evil and false opposing what is good and true, to which end it makes that ordinary degree of spiritual light flowing in through the chinks all around subservient to itself.