1043. And decked with gold and precious stone. That this signifies the appearance of that religious persuasion in externals, as it were from spiritual good and truth, although, in internals, it is from infernal evil and falsity, is evident from the signification of gold, as denoting spiritual good, and the evil that is the opposite of it, which is called infernal evil. That gold signifies good, see n. 242. And from the signification of precious stone, as denoting truth from a spiritual origin, and also the falsity that is the opposite of it, which is called infernal falsity. That a precious stone denotes truth from a spiritual origin, see n. 717.

[2] Some observations were made above concerning good and truth from a celestial origin, and concerning good and truth from a spiritual origin. Something shall now be said concerning the evil and falsity which are their opposites.

As the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms - the celestial and the spiritual - so also are the hells distinguished into two dominions, the opposites of those kingdoms. The dominion the opposite of the celestial kingdom is called diabolical, and the dominion the opposite of the spiritual kingdom is called infernal. Those dominions are distinguished in the Word by the names Devil and Satan. The reason why there are two dominions in the hells is, that the heavens and the hells are the opposites of each other; and opposite must altogether correspond to opposite in order that there may be equilibrium. For the existence and subsistence of all things, both in the natural world and in the spiritual world, depend upon a perfect equilibrium between two opposite agents, which, while they clearly act against each other mutually, do so by force, but when not manifestly, they act by effort. By equilibrium all things are kept together in both worlds, and without it all things would perish. The equilibrium in the spiritual world is between good from heaven and evil from hell, and thence between truth from heaven and falsity from hell. For so it is continually ordered by the Lord, that all the genera and species of good and truth in the heavens should have their opposites in evils and falsities of correspondent kinds in the hells. Thus goods and truths from a celestial origin have for their opposites the evils and falsities that are called diabolical; and similarly goods and truths from a spiritual origin have for their opposites the evils and falsities that are called infernal.

[3] The equilibriums derive their cause from this, that the same Divine goods and Divine truths that the angels in the heavens receive from the Lord, the spirits in the hells turn into evils and falsities. All angels, spirits, and men are held by the Lord in equilibrium between good and evil, and thence between truth and falsity, in order that they may be in freedom, and so be withdrawn from evil to good, and from falsity to truth, easily and as of themselves, while yet of the Lord. Hence it is that they are also led in freedom from good to evil, and from truth to falsity, and this also as of themselves, although it is from hell.

38. Anyone who does not know how the divine design is arranged in levels cannot grasp how the heavens are distinguished from each other, or for that matter, what the inner person and the outer person are (in an individual). The only idea most people in this world have about inner and outer things is one of continuity, or of a coherence along a continuum from the finer to the coarser. Inner and outer things are not arranged in a continuum, though, but with definite boundaries.

There are two kinds of levels, continuous and noncontinuous. Continuous levels are like decreasing levels of light from a flame, all the way to darkness, or like decreasing amounts of sight from objects in the light to objects in the shade, or like levels of density of the atmosphere from the lowest to the highest. These levels are measured by distance.

[2] Noncontinuous or distinct levels, though, are separated like prior and posterior, cause and effect, producer and product. Anyone who looks closely will discover that there are these kinds of stages of production and composition in everything in the world, no matter what, with one thing arising from another, and a third from that, and so forth.

[3] People who do not acquire a grasp of these levels have no way of knowing how the heavens are arranged or the arrangement of our own deeper and more outward abilities, or the difference between the spiritual world and the natural world, or the difference between our spirit and our body. This also means they cannot understand what correspondences and images are or what inflow is like. People who are attentive only to their physical senses do not grasp these differences, but regard them as instances of increase and decrease on the model of continuous levels. As a result, they cannot think of the spiritual except as a kind of purer natural; so they stand outside, far removed from intelligence. ¹

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