8974. When thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant. That this signifies those within the church who are in the truths of doctrine and not in good according to them, is evident from the signification of “buying,” as being to procure and appropriate to oneself (see n. 4397, 5374, 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426, 7999); and from the signification of “a Hebrew servant,” as being those within the church who are in the truths of doctrine and not in good of life according to them; for “servant” is predicated of those who are in truth and not in the corresponding good, and in general, of truth relatively to good (n. 3409), and “Hebrew” is predicated of those things which are of the church, and of those things which are of some service (that it is predicated of those things which are of the church, see n. 5136, 5236, 6675, 6684; also that it is predicated of those things which are of some service, n. 1703, 1741, 5013). As in what now follows, the menservants and maidservants of the sons of Israel are treated of, it must be told what the statutes concerning them involve in the internal sense. Everyone can see that the statutes contain within them secret things of heaven, because they were spoken and commanded orally by Jehovah to Moses on Mount Sinai, and because they follow immediately after the words of the Decalogue. Apart from such secret things they would be merely civil and public laws like the laws of other nations on earth, in which there is no secret thing of heaven. But the secret things here contained are not manifest except to the angels in the heavens, consequently not to men except by the internal sense; for this teaches how the angels perceive the Word, consequently it teaches the secret things that are within the Word. What and of what quality these secret things are, will be plain in the following explication of each particular.

[2] That a general idea may be had, it shall be briefly told what is specifically meant by “Hebrew servants” in the internal sense. In the spiritual church, which the sons of Israel represented, there are two kinds of men: there are those who are in the truth of faith and not in the corresponding good of life, and there are those who are in the good of charity and in the corresponding truth of faith. They who are in the good of charity and in the corresponding truth of faith are they who constitute the very church itself, and are men of the internal church. In the internal sense of the Word these are they who are called the “sons of Israel.” These are of themselves free, because they are in good; for they who are led by the Lord by means of good are free (n. 892, 905, 2870-2893). But they who are in the truth of faith and not in the corresponding good of life are men of the external spiritual church. These are they who in the internal sense of the Word are meant by the “Hebrew servants.” They are represented by servants because those things which are of the external church are relatively nothing else than things of service. The case is similar also with the truth of faith relatively to the good of charity; for the truth of faith serves for introducing the man of the church into the good of charity.

[3] Be it known moreover that he who makes everything of the church, thus everything of salvation, to consist in the truth of faith and not in the good of charity, and who also does good from obedience only and not from the affection which is of the love, cannot be regenerated, as can those who are in the good of charity, that is, who do what is good from the affection of love. They can indeed be reformed, but not regenerated. Their reformation is here treated of in the internal sense in the laws concerning menservants and concerning maidservants. The secret things of this reformation are not at this day known to anyone, for the reason that an almost total ignorance prevails within the church of what the truth of faith effects toward salvation, and what the good of charity effects. Nay, it is not known what charity is, or that charity and faith must marry together for anything of the church to exist in man; for the marriage of good and truth is the church itself, because it is heaven in man (n. 2173, 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803, 3132, 3155, 4434, 4823, 5194, 5502, 6179).