A congregation is a group of people with common loves, interests, and purposes. It often refers to a church group. In the Word it is almost always used to speak of the whole group of the Children of Israel, as the tabernacle of the congregation, or the people of the congregation. Sometimes the original Hebrew is translated as assembly, too. This is a case where readers and translators need to be aware of the context and potential nuances of meaning. Swedenborg writes that,'The congregation of the people' stands for people who are ruled by truths constituting intelligence, since 'congregation' is used with reference to truths... as also is 'people'... 'the assembly of the old' stands for people who are ruled by good. The usage of the term congregation also implies an ordering, or arrangement of truths.

(Verweise: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 6338, 7843, 7891; The Apocalypse Explained 724 [17])

6338. 'Assemble' means that they should arrange themselves into order. This is clear from the meaning of 'assembling' as becoming arranged into order. 'Assembling' has no other meaning in the spiritual sense, for truths and forms of good cannot assemble without also becoming arranged into order. For the universal influence which emanates from the Lord causes this to happen, because that influence covers all specific things, including the most specific. All these taken together compose the universal influence by which all things in heaven are arranged into order. When that universal influence is at work forms of good and truths appear to arrange themselves into order, as though they moved into such order of their own accord. This is true of heaven taken as a whole; it is in a state of order and is constantly preserved in that state by the universal influence emanating from the Lord. It is also true of the communities of heaven in general, and it is true in addition of the communities there in particular. For as soon as angels or spirits assemble they instantly become arranged, seemingly all by themselves, into a state of order, and in so doing constitute a heavenly community that is an image of heaven. This would never happen if the universal influence emanating from the Lord did not cover the most specific things of all, and if all these were not in an utterly perfect state of order. If, as most people think, only some universal influence unconcerned with things of a specific nature came from God, and man, spirit, or angel controlled those things for himself, then instead of order everything would be in a state of confusion, and there would not be any heaven, or hell, or human race, or indeed any natural world.

[2] This may be illustrated from many things existing with a person. Unless for example his thoughts were arranged into order as a general whole, and at the same time in each specific part by the affections belonging to his love, those thoughts could never flow in a rational and analytical manner. Nor likewise could his actions. Also, unless there were universal and specific influences from the soul into the internal organs of the body, no order or control could be established in the body. But when there are specific influences and thus a universal one, all things are arranged into order seemingly by themselves. These matters have been stated so that people may know how to understand the idea that truths and forms of good should arrange themselves into order.