8644. Moses’ father-in-law. That this signifies from which is good conjoined with truth Divine, is evident from the signification of “father-in-law,” as being the good from which is the good that is conjoined with truth (see n. 6827); and from the representation of Moses, as being truth Divine (n. 6752, 6771, 7010, 7014, 7382). The reason why “a father-in-law” signifies good from which is good conjoined with truth, is that “a wife” signifies good when “the man” signifies truth (n. 2517, 4510, 4823). As in what follows, the conjunction of Divine good with Divine truth is treated of, whereby a setting in order may be effected in the man of the church, be it known that between Divine good and Divine truth there is this distinction: that Divine good is in the Lord, and Divine truth is from the Lord. It is as with the fire of the sun and the light which is therefrom; the fire is in the sun, and the light is from the sun; in the light there is not fire but heat.

[2] Moreover in the other life the Lord is the Sun, and also is the light. In the Sun there, which is Himself, is Divine fire, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. From that Sun is Divine light, which is Divine truth from Divine good. In this Divine truth there is also Divine good, but not such as is in the Sun, it being accommodated to reception in heaven; for unless it were accommodated to reception, heaven could not have come into existence, because no angel can bear the flame from the Divine love. He would be consumed in a moment, as would a man if the flame of the sun of this world should blow directly upon him.

[3] But how the Divine good of the Lord’s Divine love is accommodated to reception, cannot be known by anyone, not even by the angels in heaven, because it is an accommodation of the Infinite to the finite; and the Infinite is such as to transcend all the understanding of the finite, insomuch that when the understanding of the finite desires to look in that direction, it falls as into the depth of the sea and perishes. (That the Lord is the Sun in heaven, and that the Sun there is the Divine good of His Divine love, and that the light therefrom is Divine truth, from which is intelligence, see n. 1053, 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 2776, 3094, 3138, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339, 3341, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4180, 4302, 4408, 4409, 4415, 4523, 4533, 4696, 7083, 7171, 7174, 7270, 8197)

4523. CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE EYE AND OF LIGHT WITH THE GRAND MAN.

Everyone who has any knowledge of air and sound may know that the ear is formed in precise adaptation to the nature of their modifications, thus that in respect to its bodily and material form, the ear corresponds to them; and he who has acquired any knowledge of the ether and light, knows that in respect to its bodily and material form, the eye has been formed so as to correspond to the modifications of these; and that this is so much the case that whatever secret thing has been stored up in the nature of air and of sound is inscribed on the organism of the ear, and whatever secret thing has been stored up in the nature of the ether and of light is inscribed on the organism of the eye.

[2] Consequently he who is skilled in anatomy and also in physics may know by investigation that as regards their bodily and material forms, the organs both of sense and of motion, together with all the viscera, correspond to various things that exist in the nature of the world; and thus that the whole body is an organ composed of the most secret things in the nature of the world, and in accordance with their secret forces of acting and their wonderful modes of flowing. For this reason man was called by the ancients a little world or microcosm.

[3] He who knows this may also know that whatever exists in the world and its nature does not come forth from itself, but from what is prior to itself; and that this prior cannot come forth from itself, but from something prior to itself; and so on even to the First, from whom the things that follow come forth in order. And as they come forth from this, they also subsist from it; for subsistence is a perpetual coming forth. Hence it follows that all things in nature both in general and in particular, down to its last things, have not only come forth from the First, but also subsist from the First; for unless they were perpetually coming forth, and unless there were a continuous nexus, from the First, and thus with the First, they would fall to pieces and perish in an instant.