6645. And Joseph died. That this signifies that the case would now be different with the internal of the church, is evident from the signification of “dying,” as being the end of a former state and the beginning of a new one, thus that the state of the church would now be different (that “to die” denotes to cease to be such, see n. 494, 6587, 6593, and that it denotes the end of a former representation, n. 3253, 3259, 3276, 6302); and from the representation of Joseph, as being the internal (n. 6177, 6224). The state of the church as it now is, is described in what follows in the internal sense; also the state of its external, which is signified by “his brethren died, and all that generation.”

[2] The case with the church in man is that it successively undergoes new states; for as man is strengthened in the truth of faith and the good of charity, so he is introduced into other states, the former state then serving as a plane for the following state, and so on continually. Thus the man who is a church, or who is being regenerated, is continually led toward more interior things, thus more interiorly into heaven. That it is so done is because the Lord from love, which is infinite because Divine, wills to draw man even to Himself, and so to bless him with all glory and happiness, as also is very evident from the Lord’s words in John:

I pray that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us. The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one even as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me. Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be also with Me where I am; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me; for I have made known unto them Thy name, and I will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:21-24, 26).

[3] That these are words of Divine love toward all who receive, is very evident, and may be further evident from the fact that the Lord appears in the other life as a sun, and from it fills the universal heaven with heat and light. The flame of this sun is nothing else than the Divine love, and the light from it is the holy of love, which is the Divine truth. From this can be seen how great the Lord’s love is. From this then it is that they who are of the church are successively brought into new states, and thus continually more interiorly into heaven, consequently nearer to the Lord.

494. That he “died” signifies that there was no longer such perception, is evident from the signification of the word “die” which is, that a thing ceases to be such as it has been. Thus in John:

Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith He that hath the seven spirits, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou art said to live, but art dead; be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God (Revelation 3:1-2).

In Jeremiah:

I will cast out thy mother that bare thee, into another country where ye were not begotten, and there shall ye die (Jeremiah 22:26),

where “mother” signifies the church. For as we have said, the case with the church is that it decreases and degenerates, and loses its pristine integrity, chiefly by reason of the increase of hereditary evil, for every succeeding parent adds new evil to that which he has inherited. All the actual evil in the parents puts on a kind of nature, and when it often recurs, becomes natural to them, and is added to their hereditary evil, and is transmitted into their children, and so to posterity. In this way the hereditary evil is immensely increased in the descendants. That this is so is evident from the fact that the evil dispositions of children are exactly like those of their progenitors. Quite false is the opinion of those who think that there is no hereditary evil except that which they allege to have been implanted in us from Adam (see n. 313). The truth is that everyone makes hereditary evil by his own actual sins, and adds it to the evils that he has inherited, and in this way it accumulates, and remains in all the descendants, nor is it abated except in those who are being regenerated by the Lord. In every church this is the principal cause of degeneration, and it was so in the Most Ancient Church.