10498. That Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin. That this signifies a complete estrangement and turning away, is evident from the signification of “sin,” as being a turning away and estrangement from the Divine (see n. 5229, 5474, 5841, 7589, 9346), here a complete turning away and estrangement, because it is called “a great sin.” Turning away and estrangement from the Divine is complete when there is no longer received anything of truth and good from heaven, for the truth and good from heaven is the Divine with man. That with that nation there was no reception of truth and good from heaven, consequently that there was a complete turning away from the Divine, is described by these words in Isaiah:

Say to this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and blot out their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart should understand, and be converted, that they may be healed (Isaiah 6:9-10; also John 12:37-40);

it is said, “lest they be converted that they may be healed,” by which is signified that if they were to understand the internal things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, they would profane them (according to what was said above, n. 10490).

301. The other arcanum is that had they been instructed in the mysteries of faith they would have perished eternally, which is signified by the words, “now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of lives, and eat, and live to eternity.” The case is this: When men have become inverted orders of life, and are unwilling to live, or to become wise, except from themselves and from their Own, they reason about everything they hear respecting faith, as to whether it is so, or not; and as they do this from themselves and from their own things of sense and of memory-knowledge, it must needs lead to denial, and consequently to blasphemy and profanation, so that at length they do not scruple to mix up profane things with holy. When a man becomes like this, he is so condemned in the other life that there remains for him no hope of salvation. For things mixed up by profanation remain so mixed up, so that whenever any idea of something holy presents itself, an idea of something profane that is conjoined with it is also there, the consequence of which is that the person cannot be in any society except one of the damned. Whatever is present in any idea of thought in consequence of being conjoined with it, is most exquisitely perceived in the other life, even by spirits in the world of spirits, and much more so by angelic spirits, so exquisitely indeed that from a single idea they know a person’s character. The separation of profane and holy ideas when thus conjoined cannot be effected except by means of such infernal torment that if a man were aware of it he would as carefully avoid profanation as he would avoid hell itself.