To build something generally means to put together a variety of simpler pieces to make a useful and more complex structure, as to build a house out of wood or bricks, and it is commonly used this way in the Word. In the land of Shinar men wished to build a tower, and in the new testament Jesus advised that a wise man should build his house on a rock. But in a representative sense the meaning is to build a mental and spiritual structure, like the doctrine of a church or the individual concepts of spiritual reality in a single mind. The building materials are representative also. The tower of Babel was built of brick, which is man-made rock, or representatively, man-made "truths", that is"truths" not from God but ideas of spiritual reality thought out by men. The house that the wise man would build was founded on a natural or "God-made" rock, which means a truth from the Word.

2027. 'And to your seed after you' means that He would give them to those who would have faith in Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as faith, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, that is to say, the faith that is grounded in charity, dealt with in 379, 389, 654, 724, 809, 916, 1017, 1162, 1176, 1258. People who attach merit to the deeds they perform in life do not have the faith that is grounded in charity, and so are not those meant by 'the seed' here, for in so doing they do not wish to be saved by the Lord's righteousness but by their own. That no faith grounded in charity exists with them, that is, no charity, is clear from their habit of putting themselves before other people and so of having themselves in view and not other people, except insofar as the latter serve them. And those who are unwilling to serve them they either despise or hate. Thus through self-love they part company and never come together, and in this way they destroy that which is heavenly, namely mutual love, which is the mainstay of heaven. For it is in that love that heaven itself, and its whole companionship and harmony, continues to exist and consists. For whatever is destructive of the harmony existing in the next life is opposed to the order of heaven itself, and so contributes to the destruction of the whole. Such is the nature of people who attach merit to the deeds which they perform in life and lay claim to righteousness for themselves.

[2] There are many persons of this type in the next life. Sometimes their faces shine like torches, but this is because of the ignis fatuus that is the product of self-righteousness. They are in fact ice-cold. Sometimes they are seen running about and confirming self-merit from the literal sense of the Word, at the same time hating the truths that belong to the internal sense, 1877. The sphere emanating from them is one of self-regard, and so a sphere destructive of all ideas which do not regard self as some kind of deity. The sphere emanating from many such persons is at the same time so disruptive that nothing else than that which is hostile and antagonistic exists there, for when each has the same wish, namely to be served, he at heart slays every other.

[3] Some of them are numbered among those who say that they have worked in the Lord's vineyard. During all that time however they had been turning over in their minds how to further their own reputation, glory, and honour, and also their own enrichment, even to the point of their becoming the greatest in heaven and being served even by angels. Since at heart they despise others in comparison with themselves, they have accordingly not been endowed with any mutual love in which heaven consists but with self-love which they identify with heaven, for they do not know what heaven is. Regarding these people, see 450-452, 1594, 1679. They belong among those who wish to be first but become last, of whom the Lord speaks in Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31. They are also those who say that they have prophesied in the Lord's name and have done many mighty works, but of whom it is said, 'I do not know you', Matthew 7:22-23.

[4] The situation is different with people who from simplicity of heart have assumed that they have merited heaven but who have led charitable lives and who have not been captivated by self-love and so despised others in comparison with themselves. They have looked upon meriting heaven as a promise, and they readily acknowledge that it is a matter of the Lord's mercy, for a charitable life implies such acknowledgement. Charity itself loves all truth.