Explanation of Leviticus 19
Napsal(a) Henry MacLagan
Verses 1-8. Instruction is given that man must conjoin good and truth in himself; reverence and love them; confirm himself in true worship; refrain from selfish and worldly love which is idolatry; love good as manifested in truth; worship in freedom; appropriate good; reject evil in the process of Judgement; and especially avoid profanation then, because this would be to confirm himself in evil
Verses 9-10. In the period of Judgement good and truth are to be devoted to the Lord in works of charity without any selfish motive
Verses 11-18. Various prohibitions involving important spiritual obligations
Verses 19-22. Concerning the illegitimate conjunction of good affections with evil in the course of regeneration, but not from deliberate wickedness; and concerning the remedy and its result
Verses 23-25. On the appropriation of good in the perfect state; its relative imperfection; its full realization; and its abundant increase by the implantation of remains
Verses 26-37. Concerning various prohibitions and duties which the truly spiritual man ought by no means to neglect.
Arcana Coelestia # 560
560. THE INTERNAL SENSE
Before one can go any further, reference must be made to the Church as it was before the Flood. In general it went the same way as subsequent Churches, as the Jewish Church before the Lord's Coming and the Christian Church after; that is, people corrupted and adulterated the cognitions of true faith. In particular as regards the member of the Church before the Flood, he conceived dreadful persuasions in the process of time and immersed the goods and truths of faith in filthy desires, to such an extent that scarcely any remnants resided with him. And once they had become such those people suffocated themselves so to speak, for nobody can live without remnants. Indeed, as already stated, it is remnants that make man's life superior to that of animals; it is from remnants, or from the Lord through them, that anyone is enabled to be a human being, to know what good and truth are, and to reflect on individual things, and so to think and to reason. For remnants alone are what contain spiritual and celestial life.
