3796. 'And so it was, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother' means an acknowledgement of the affection for that truth as to its origin. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' here as acknowledging, as is evident from the train of thought, and from the representation of 'Rachel' as the affection for interior truth, dealt with above in 3793. The expression 'the daughter of Laban his mother's brother' embodies the origin of that affection; that is to say, it came from a parallel good which had been joined in a brotherly relationship to rational truth represented by 'Rebekah, Jacob's mother'.

[2] As regards affections for truth and good, genuine affections for truth and good which are perceived by a person all have a Divine origin since they come from the Lord. But as they come down they branch off into various and different streams where they form new origins for themselves. For as they flow into affections which are not genuine but spurious, and into affections for evil and falsity present with a person, so they become varied. Affections which often have a similar outward appearance to genuine ones present themselves, but these are nevertheless not genuine inwardly. The only way to establish their true identity is to discover the end they have in view. If that end is selfish or worldly those affections are not genuine. But if the end is the good of the neighbour, the good of the community, the good of the country, and more still if it is the good of the Church and the good of the Lord's kingdom, they are genuine, for in that case the Lord is their end, since the Lord is within those varieties of good.

[3] But it is the mark of someone wise to be aware of which ends are present in himself. Sometimes it does seem as though his ends are selfish when in fact they are not, for the human being is such that in everything he considers how it affects himself. This he does regularly and habitually. But if anyone wishes to know the ends he himself has in view he has merely to take note of his feeling of delight - whether it is on account of his receiving praise and glory, or whether it is on account of his performing some unselfish service. If it is the latter delight which he feels, genuine affection is present in him. He ought also to take note of the varying states he passes through, for those states cause his feelings to vary considerably. A person is able to find these things out in himself, but not in others, for the ends in view to anyone's affection are known to the Lord alone. This is why the Lord said,

Do not judge, lest you are judged; do not condemn, lest you are condemned. Luke 6:37.

For a thousand people may apparently share the same affection for truth and goodness, and yet the affection in each of them may have a different origin, that is, each may have a different end in view.

[4] The reason the end makes the affection what it is - that is to say, genuine, spurious, or false - is that the end is the person's actual life. Indeed a person has as his end in view that which constitutes his life, or what amounts to the same, his love. When the good of the neighbour, the common good, the good of the Church and of the Lord's kingdom is the end in view, a person's soul is in the Lord's kingdom and so abides with the Lord. For the Lord's kingdom is nothing else than a kingdom of ends and purposes directed towards the good of the human race, 3645. Angels themselves present with a person are nowhere else than within his ends in view. To the extent that someone's end in view is such as that which exists in the Lord's kingdom, angels take delight in him and join themselves to him as a brother. But to the extent a person's end is himself, angels depart and evil spirits from hell draw near, for in hell no other end in view reigns. From these considerations one may see how important it is to find out and to know where one's affections originate; these can be known from nothing else than one's end in view.

994. That 'every creeping thing that is living' means all pleasures containing good, which is living, is clear from the meaning of 'creeping thing' dealt with already. The fact that 'creeping thing' here means all clean beasts and birds is clear to everyone, for it is said that they are 'given for food'. In their proper sense 'creeping things' comprise those which were the basest of all, mentioned by name in Leviticus 11:27, 29-30, and were unclean. But in a broad sense, as here, they are the living creatures that have been given for food. They are called 'creeping things' here however because they mean pleasures. In the Word, human affections are meant by 'clean beasts', as has been stated. But because no one perceives those affections except within his pleasures, so much so that he refers to them as pleasures, they are for this reason called 'creeping things' here.

[2] There are two kinds of pleasures - those of the will and those of the understanding. In general there are the pleasures of possessing land and wealth; the pleasures of positions of honour and those of service to the state; the pleasures of conjugial love, and of love of infants and children; the pleasures of friendship and of social intercourse; the pleasures of reading, writing, having knowledge, being wise, and many others. Then there are the pleasures of the senses; such as that of hearing, which in general is the pleasure taken in the sweet sounds of music and song; that of seeing, which in general is the pleasure taken in various things of beauty, which are manifold; that of smell, which is that taken in pleasant odours; that of taste, which is that taken in all the delicious and nourishing qualities of food and drink; and that of touch, which arises from further joyous sensations. Because these different kinds of pleasures are experienced in the body, they are called pleasures of the body. But no pleasure ever arises in the body unless it arises from, and is sustained by, some interior affection. Nor does any interior affection ever do so unless this in turn stems from a still more interior affection in which use and the end in view reside.

[3] These areas of affection, which are interior and properly ordered, starting with the inmost, are not discerned by anyone during his lifetime. The majority scarcely know that they even exist, let alone that they are the source of pleasures. Yet nothing can possibly arise in things that are external except from those that are interior and in order. Pleasures are simply ultimate effects. Interior things are not evident during life in the body except to those who reflect. It is in the next life that they first manifest themselves, and indeed in the order in which the Lord raises them up towards heaven. Interior affections together with their joys manifest themselves in the world of spirits; still more interior ones together with their delights do so in the heaven of angelic spirits; and yet more interior ones together with all their happiness in the heaven of angels. For there are three heavens, one interior to and more perfect and happy than the next, see 459, 684. Such is the order in which these things unfold and enable themselves to be perceived in the next life. But so long as someone is living in the body, because his ideas and thought are constantly of bodily things, those that are interior are so to speak dormant because they are immersed in bodily things. All the same, to anyone who stops to reflect it becomes clear that the nature of all pleasures is such as are the affections ranged in order within them and that those pleasures derive their entire essence and character from those affections.

[4] Since the affections ranged in order within are experienced in outermost things, that is, in the body, as pleasures, they are therefore called 'creeping things'. But these are simply bodily feelings that are the products of things within, as may become clear to anyone merely from sight and its pleasures. If interior sight does not exist, the eye cannot possibly see. The sight of the eye comes from a more interior sight, and therefore also man has the gift of sight just as much after his life in the body as during it; indeed he sees far better than when he lived in the body, though now he does not see worldly and bodily things but things that exist in the next life. People who have been blind during their lifetime have the gift of sight in the next life just as much as those who have been sharp-sighted. This also is why when someone is asleep he sees in his dreams just as clearly as when awake. With my internal sight I have been allowed to see the things that exist in the next life more clearly than I see those which exist in the world. From these considerations it is clear that external sight comes from a more interior sight, which in turn comes from sight still more interior, and so on. The same applies to each one of the other senses and to every kind of pleasure.

[5] In other parts of the Word pleasures are in a similar way called 'creeping things'. In those places too a distinction is made between creeping things that are clean and those that are not, that is, between pleasures whose joys are living or heavenly, and pleasures whose joys are dead or hellish, as in Hosea,

I will make for them a covenant on that day with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, ¹ and with the creeping things of the ground. Hosea 2:18.

Here 'wild animals of the field, birds of the air, ¹ and creeping things' means the kind of things already mentioned that reside with man. This becomes clear for the reason that a new Church is the subject.

In David,

Let heaven and earth praise Jehovah, the seas and everything creeping in them. Psalms 69:34.

'Seas and creeping things in them' cannot praise Jehovah but the things with man which they mean and which are alive, and so from what is living within them.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animal and every beast, creeping thing and winged bird. Psalms 148:10.

Here the meaning is similar. That 'creeping things' is used here to mean nothing other than good affections in which pleasures originate is clear also from the fact that creeping things among them were unclean, as will be evident from the following:

[6] In the same author,

O Jehovah, the earth is full of Your possessions; this sea, great and wide, containing creeping things and innumerable; they all look to You to give them their food in due season. You givest to them - they gather it up; You openest Your hand - they are satisfied with good. Psalms 104:24, 25, 27-28.

Here in the internal sense 'seas' means spiritual things, 'creeping things' all things that live from them. Fruitfulness is described by 'giving them food in due season and being satisfied with good'.

In Ezekiel,

It will be that every living creature ² that creeps, in every place the [two] rivers come to, will live, and there will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:9.

This refers to the waters flowing out of the New Jerusalem. 'Waters' stands for spiritual things from a celestial origin. 'Living creature that creeps' stands for affections for good and the pleasures deriving from these affections, both those of the body and those of the senses. The fact that the latter get their life from 'the waters' which are spiritual things from a celestial origin is quite clear.

[7] Filthy pleasures as well, which have their origin in the proprium and so in its foul desires, are also called 'creeping things'. This is clear in Ezekiel,

And I went and saw, and behold, every form of creeping thing and of beast, an abomination; and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed on the wall round about. Ezekiel 8:10.

Here 'the form of a creeping thing' means filthy pleasures in which evil desires exist interiorly, and hatred, revenge, cruelty, and adultery within these. Such is the nature of 'creeping things', that is, the delights inherent in pleasures which originate in self-love and love of the world, that is, in the proprium. They are people's idols because they consider them delightful, love them, hold them as gods, and in so doing worship them. Because those creeping things meant filthy things such as these, in the representative Church also they were so unclean that no one was even allowed to touch them. And anyone who did merely touch them was rendered unclean, as is clear from Leviticus 5:2; 11:31-33; 22:5-6.

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