1. APPENDIX to THE WHITE HORSE ¹

Since today it must inevitably appear strange that a horse means the understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, reasonings coming as it were from the understanding which confirm falsehood, I should like to quote more passages still from the Word where the horse is mentioned. Let these suffice:

Is Thine indignation against the sea, O Jehovah, when Thou dost ride upon Thy horses! Thy chariots are salvation. Thou didst trample the sea with Thy horses, the surging of the waters, Habakkuk 3:8, 15.

The hoofs of Jehovah's horses are reckoned as flint, Isaiah 5:28.

At Thy rebuke both chariot and horse lay stunned, Psalm 76:5-6.

I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will overthrow the chariot and those that ride in it, and the horses and their horsemen shall go down, Haggai 2:22.

I will cut off the horse from Jerusalem: he shall speak peace to the nations, Zechariah 9:10.

In these places the Church's understanding of truth is meant by the horse, and doctrine derived from it by the chariot; and those who are able to understand and learn from the Word are meant by riders and horsemen. The matter is plainer still from these places:

Gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice; you shall be satisfied at My table with horse and chariot. So I will set My glory among the nations, Ezekiel 39:17, 20-21.

Gather yourselves to the great supper of God, and you shall eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, Revelation 19:17-18.

The subject here is the New Church that is to be established by the Lord. At that time the understanding of the Word will be opened and from it men will be taught the doctrine of truth. What else would the statements that they were to be filled at the Lord's table with horse and chariot, and that they were to eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, be but utter absurdities! In addition to the examples already brought forward, the meaning of horse and chariot is obvious from these places:

Gird on Thy sword, O Mighty One! Mount, and ride on the Word of truth, Psalm 45:3-4.

Sing, lift up a song to Him Who rides upon the clouds, Psalm 68:4.

Jehovah comes riding upon a cloud, Isaiah 19:1.

Sing to the Lord Who is riding on the highest heaven of old, Psalm 68:33-34.

God rode on a cherub, Psalm 18:10.

Then you shall take delight in Jehovah, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, Isaiah 58:14; Deuteronomy 32:13.

I will make Ephraim ride, Hosea 10:11.

By riding in these passages is meant teaching and being taught the truths of doctrine, and thus being wise. By the heights of the earth are meant the summits of the Church, and by Ephraim also the understanding of the Word. Like matters are meant by horses and chariots, by the four chariots coming out between the mountains of bronze, and by the four horses harnessed to them, which were red, black, white, and dappled grey, and which are also called spirits and are said to have gone forth from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth, Zechariah 6:1-8, 15.

Things of a similar nature are meant by these words as well:

When the Lamb opened the seals of the book horses went out in order, first a white horse, second a red horse, third a black horse, and fourth a pale horse, Revelation 6:1-8.

It is obvious that by the book whose seals the Lamb opened the Word is meant, out of which nothing else could come except the understanding of it. What other meaning could horses coming out of an opened book have!

It is clear that a horse means the understanding of truth and a chariot doctrine from the same words when they are used in a contrary sense. A horse then means the understanding falsifying truths by means of mere reasonings, and a chariot consequent doctrine, that is, heresy, as in the following places:

Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help and rely on horses and do not look to the Holy One of Israel! For Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit, Isaiah 31:1, 3.

You shall set over Israel a king whom Jehovah shall choose, only let him not multiply horses for himself nor lead the people back into Egypt to multiply horses, Deuteronomy 17:14-16.

These matters have been stated because by Egypt is meant the natural man, who corrupts the truths of the Word by mere reasonings from the physical senses. What else could the horses of Egypt being flesh and not spirit, and the king not having to multiply horses, that is, falsehoods that have to do with religion, mean?

Assyria will not save us, we will not ride upon a horse, Hosea 14:3.

Some boast of the chariot and others of horses but we will boast of the name of our God, Psalm 20:7-8.

A horse is a vain thing for safety, Psalm 33:17.

The Holy One of Israel said, In trust shall be your strength. But you said, No. We will flee on a horse, we will ride on a swift one, Isaiah 30:15-16.

Jehovah will set Judah like a glorious horse; they shall put to shame those riding on horses, Zechariah 10:3-5.

I will bring against Tyre the king of Babylon, with horse and with chariot, and with horsemen. Their horses shall be so many that their dust will cover you, and the noise of horse and chariot so much that your walls will be shaken. With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets, Ezekiel 26:7-11.

By Tyre in the Word is meant the Church as regards its cognitions of good and truth, and by the king of Babylon the falsification and profanation of them. Hence it says here that he will come with horse and chariot and horsemen, and that the horses will be so many that their dust will cover him. Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies, with whinnying horse and bounding chariot, Nahum 3:1-4.

By the bloody city is meant doctrine derived from truths of the Word that have been falsified. And in other places as well, such as Isaiah 5:26, 28; Jeremiah 6:23, 8:16, 46:4, 9, 50:37-38, 42; Ezekiel 17:15, 23:6, 20; Habakkuk 1:6, 8-10; Psalms 66:11-12, 147:10. A falsified and ruined understanding of truth that is in the Word is also meant by the red, black, and pale horses of Revelation 6:4-5, 8. Since therefore a horse means an understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, an understanding of falsehood, it is clear what the Word is like in its spiritual sense.

It is well known that hieroglyphics existed in Egypt and that these were inscribed on columns and temple walls, etc., and that nobody knows nowadays what they meant. They were nothing else but correspondences of natural and spiritual things, to which the Egyptians applied themselves more than any other peoples of their own times in Asia, and it was according to these correspondences that the ancient Greeks composed their fables. The most ancient style was nothing else but this. To all these matters let me add one that is new: All things that manifest themselves in the spiritual world to angels and spirits are without exception correspondences, and for that very reason the whole of the Sacred Scripture has been written by means of correspondences [in the margin: in order that by means of it, as this is the nature of it, men of the Church would be conjoined with angels of heaven]. But because the Egyptians, and others with them in the kingdoms of Asia, began to turn those correspondences into forms of idolatry which the children of Israel tended to favour, the latter were forbidden to call them back into any use at all, as is quite plain from the first of the Ten Commandments where these words appear:

You shall not make for yourself any carved image which is in the heavens above or which is on the earth beneath or which is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I am Jehovah your God, Deuteronomy 5:8-9.

And there are many more examples elsewhere. From that time on the knowledge of correspondences was blotted out. This happened by stages, in so much that nowadays its existence in the past is almost unknown, or that there is such a thing. Now however because a New Church is to be established by the Lord, one that is to be based on the Word, and which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, the Lord has been pleased to reveal that knowledge, and so to open up the Word to show what it is like inside in its inmost parts, that is, to show what it is in the spiritual sense. This has been done by means of myself in ARCANA COELESTIA, published in London, and afterwards in APOCALYPSE REVEALED, published in Amsterdam. Since for men of early times that knowledge was the greatest knowledge of all, and from it came their wisdom, it is important that some member of your academy should devote his labours to that knowledge, which can be done chiefly from the correspondences disclosed in APOCALYPSE REVEALED and proved from the Word. If there is a demand for it I am willing to unravel the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are nothing else but correspondences, and have the matter published. Nobody else can do it.

Em. Swedenborg

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10152. 'And Aaron and his sons [I will sanctify], to serve Me in the priestly office' means that which is representative of the Lord in both groups of heavens in respect of the work of salvation. This is clear from the representation of 'Aaron' as the Lord in respect of celestial good, dealt with in 9806, 9946, 10068, and from the representation of 'Aaron's sons' as the Lord in respect of spiritual good, dealt with in 10017, 10068, thus in both groups of heavens, the higher heavens and the lower ones (for whether you say celestial good, or the celestial kingdom, or the higher heavens, it amounts to the same thing; and also whether you say spiritual good, or the spiritual kingdom, or the lower heavens, it amounts to the same thing; regarding the higher and the lower heavens, see what has been stated immediately above in 10150, 10151); and from the representation of 'the priestly office' as the Lord's work of salvation, dealt with in 9809, 10017. From these representations it is evident that 'sanctifying Aaron and his sons to serve Jehovah in the priestly office' means that which is representative of the Lord in both groups of heavens in respect of the work of salvation.

[2] Something more about the Lord's work of salvation can be mentioned here. It is well known in the Church that the Lord is the Saviour and Redeemer of the human race, though few know how to understand this. Those acquainted with the outward things of the Church believe that the Lord redeemed the world, that is, the human race, by His blood, by which they understand His passion on the Cross. But those acquainted with the inward realities of the Church know that no one is saved by the Lord's blood, only by a life in keeping with the commandments of faith and charity taught by the Lord's Word. Those acquainted with the inmost realities of the Church understand by the Lord's blood Divine Truth emanating from Him. By His passion on the Cross they understand the final temptation the Lord underwent, by which He completely subdued the hells and at the same time glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, thereby also redeeming and saving all who allow themselves to be regenerated through a life in keeping with the commandments of faith and charity taught by His Word. 'The Lord's blood' furthermore is used in the internal sense, according to which the angels in heaven perceive the Word, to mean Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, see, 4735, 5476, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393, 10026, 10033.

[3] But in what way mankind was saved and redeemed by the Divine through His subduing of the hells and glorifying of His Human none can know if they do not know that each individual person has angels from heaven and spirits from hell present with him, and that unless these were present with a person unceasingly, the person could not think anything or will anything, so that the person is inwardly subject to the influence either of spirits who come from hell or of angels from heaven. Once all this is known it may be seen that unless the Lord had completely subdued the hells and had restored all things to order both there and in the heavens, no one could have been saved. Nor could any have been saved unless the Lord had made Divine His Human, and by doing this had acquired to Himself Divine power over the hells and over the heavens for evermore; for without Divine power neither the hells nor the heavens can be kept in order. The power which enables anything to come into being must be everlasting, if that thing is to remain in being; for remaining in being is an everlasting coming into being.

[4] The Divine Himself, called the Father, could not have accomplished the work of salvation without the Divine Human, referred to as the Son, for the Divine Himself without the Divine Human cannot reach a person, not even an angel, because the human race has moved away completely from the Divine. This happened when eventually there was no longer any faith nor any charity. At that time therefore the Lord came into the world and restored all things, doing so from His Humanity; and by doing that He saved and redeemed people through their faith and love to the Lord, received from the Lord. For the Lord can withhold these people from hell and eternal damnation, but not those who reject faith and love received from and offered back to Him, since they reject salvation and redemption.

[5] The truth that the Divine Himself achieves this through the Divine Human is clear from a large number of places in the Word, such as those in which the Divine Human, that is, the Son of God, is called the right hand and the arm of Jehovah, or in which it says that the Lord has all power in heaven and on earth. The fact that the Lord is called the right hand and the arm of Jehovah, see 10019; that He has all power in heaven and on earth, 10089; and that from His Divine Human the Lord subdued the hells, restored all things to order there and in the heavens, and at the same time glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, see the places referred to in 9528, and what has been stated in 9715, 9809, 9937, 10019. And the truth that the Divine Himself, called the Father, accomplished this through the Divine Human is evident in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made ¹ that was made ¹ . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:1-3, 14.

Here it is evident that the Lord as to His Divine Human is the One who is called 'the Word', for it says that 'the Word became flesh'. And in addition to this,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

And elsewhere in the same gospel,

You have never heard the Father's voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.

And in the same gospel,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. From now on you know the Father and have seen Him. He who sees Me sees the Father. John 14:6-7, 9.

And in Matthew,

No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27.

From all this it may now be seen what the work of salvation and redemption is, and that this is accomplished through His Divine Human.

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