9278. Six days thou shalt do thy works. That this signifies the state of labor and of combat when the man is in external delights that are to be conjoined with internal, is evident from the signification of the “six days” which precede the seventh, as being a state of labor and of combat (see n. 737, 900, 8510, 8888, 8975). The labor and combat then are signified by the “works” which they were to do in the six days. By the “works of the six days,” and the “rest on the seventh day,” are signified those things which come forth in man in his first, and in his second state, during regeneration, and also those which come forth in him when he has been regenerated.

(Concerning the first and second states of man during regeneration, see above, n. 9274; and concerning those things which come forth with him when he has been regenerated, n. 9213.) These things take place to the end that external things may be conjoined with internal; for there is an external man, which is also called natural; and there is an internal man, which is also called spiritual. The external man communicates with the world, and the internal man with heaven.

[2] The Divine order is that heaven should rule the world in man, and not the world rule heaven in him; for when heaven rules man, then the Lord rules him. Man is born into loving the world and himself more than heaven and the Lord. And because this is opposite to Divine order, there must be an inversion by means of regeneration; and this inversion is effected when the things of heaven and the Lord are loved more than those of the world and of self. This is the reason why the man who has been regenerated, as also he who is in heaven, is alternately in external and in internal things; for external things are thereby disposed so as to agree with internal things; and finally to be subject to them.

[3] When a man is in external things, he is in labor and combat, for he is then in a life which savors of the world, into which the hells flow from all sides, continually endeavoring to infest, and even to subjugate in the man the things of heaven; but the Lord continually protects and sets him free. From this arise the labor and combat which are signified by the “six days of the week in which works are to be done.” But when the man is in internal things, then, because he is in heaven with the Lord, the labor and combat cease, and he is in the tranquility of peace, in which tranquility conjunction also is effected. These are the things which are signified by the “seventh day.” That the interiors of man have been created according to the image of heaven, and his exteriors according to the image of the world; thus that man is a heaven and a world in a little form, and according to the maxim of the ancients, is a microcosm, may be seen above (n. 6057); and consequently that it is according to Divine order that the Lord through heaven directs the world in man, and by no means the reverse.

[4] The nature of the labor and combat when a man is in external things, can be seen from the fact that he is then in such a state as to be in heat from the world and to be cold toward heaven, unless heaven be to him as the world; and that he is consequently in such a shade that he cannot conceive otherwise than that external things flow into internal, and consequently that the eye sees and the ear hears of itself, and that their objects bring forth thoughts, and produce the intellect, and that thereupon he is able of himself to believe, and likewise to love God; consequently from the world to see heaven. From this fallacy he can scarcely be withdrawn until he has been raised from external things into internal, and thus into the light of heaven. Then for the first time he perceives that the things in him which are of the world, thus which are of the body and its senses, see and act through influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and not at all from themselves. From this it is evident why a sensuous man believes that everything of his life is from the world and from nature; that there is no hell, nor heaven; and finally that there is no God; consequently why he ridicules everything of the church insofar as he is concerned; but is in favor of it insofar as it concerns the simple, so that they may be in bonds, in addition to those of the laws.

[5] From this it can be known what it is to be in external things, and not at the same time in internal things, and that when a man is in external things, he is in cold and shade in respect to the things which are of heaven and which are of the Lord. From this also it can be known who in this world are intelligent and wise, namely, those who are in the truth and good of the church, because these are wise from heaven; and also who are foolish and insane, namely, those who are not in the good and truth of the church, because their knowledge is derived solely from the world; and that those among them who by means of the sciences of the world have confirmed themselves against the truths and goods of the church, are more insane and foolish that the rest, however much they may believe themselves intelligent and wise in comparison with others, and may call those simple who are in the good of life from the truths of doctrine; when yet the simplicity of these latter is wisdom in the eyes of the angels, and moreover after death they are raised by the Lord into angelic wisdom.

[6] That this is the case, the Lord also teaches in Matthew:

Therefore speak I by parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand (Matthew 13:13).

And in John:

I will send the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; for it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. Yet a little while, and the world shall see Me no more (John 14:17, 19);

“the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him,” signifies that the world will not acknowledge the Lord with faith of the heart, because external things which are of the world will obscure. Consequently who at the present day adores Him as the Lord of the whole heaven and the whole earth (Matthew 18:18)? And yet all who are in the heavens, thus all who are in internal things, regard the Lord as their only God.