187. (Verse 2) Be wakeful. That this signifies that they should procure for themselves life is evident from the signification of being wakeful, as denoting to be in spiritual life, but here, because those whose life is merely moral and not spiritual are treated of, the expression be wakeful denotes that they should procure for themselves spiritual life. The reason why awake and being wakeful signifies this life, is, that spiritual life is to moral life without spiritual as wakefulness is to sleep, or as noon day light is to evening, indeed, to darkness. But that this is the case is neither known nor perceived by those who are in natural life alone, nor by those who are in moral life without spiritual, for this life is also natural life. The reason why such neither know nor perceive this is, that they are in natural light alone, and this light in respect to spiritual light is as the darkness of evening to the light of noon-day, and the darkness of evening appears to them as light; for their interior sight, which is that of the thought, is formed for that darkness just as the sight of owls, bats, and other birds which fly by night, is formed for the shade; hence it is that they believe themselves to be in the light because they can reason, when nevertheless they are in darkness. That this is the case is quite evident from the state of such people after death, when they become spirits; then, when they are with their own, they believe that they are in light, because they then not only see all the things that are around them, but also because they can think and speak of anything whatever; but, still, when the light of heaven flows into them, their light is changed into darkness, and they become so blind as to the understanding that they cannot even think. The angels also, in the heavens, when they look down on those who are in such light, see nothing but absolute darkness. That spiritual life, in respect to moral life without it, is as wakefulness to sleep, is still further evident from the fact that those who are in spiritual life are in angelic wisdom and intelligence, which is of such a nature as to be incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in natural light alone; and this is not only the case with men whilst they live in the world, but also after death when they become spirits, and when intelligence and wisdom constitute wakefulness.

From these considerations it is now evident that, be wakeful signifies here that they should procure for themselves spiritual life.

[2] To watch, has a similar signification in the following passages. In Matthew:

"Watch therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord shall come" (24:42).

In Mark:

"Watch, for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch" (13:35-37).

He who is ignorant of the internal sense of the Word supposes that by the above words is meant the Last Judgment, and that every one ought to be prepared for it; but it is the different states of man as to his love and faith, when he dies, that are here meant, for then his last judgment takes place; and evening, night and cock-crowing signify those states. Evening signifies a state of cessation of faith and charity, which takes place when a man comes into the exercise of his own judgment, and extinguishes in himself those things which he had imbibed in his childhood. Night signifies a state devoid of faith and charity; cock-crowing or daybreak, a state of commencing faith and charity, when man loves truths and submits to reformation by means of them. In the state in which man dies he remains, and is judged according to it; hence the meaning of these words is evident:

"Watch, lest the Lord, coming suddenly, find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch;"

namely, that by watching is meant the reception of life from the Lord, which life is spiritual, and that by sleeping is meant natural life without spiritual. (That evening signifies a state of the cessation of faith and charity may be seen Arcana Coelestia 3056, 3197, 3833, 8431, 10134, 10135; that night is a state when there is no faith and charity, n. 221, 709, 2353, 6000, 7870, 7947; and that daybreak before morning, or cock-crowing, signifies a state of commencing faith and charity, n. 10134.)

[3] In Luke:

"Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to recline, and will come forth and serve them. Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not" (12:37, 40).

Here also, by those that are watching are meant spiritual watchers, these being those who receive spiritual life from the Lord, for such come into the light of intelligence and wisdom concerning Divine truths, but those who do not receive spiritual life remain in the shade and in darkness concerning those truths; therefore the latter are in a state of sleep, but the former in a state of wakefulness. By the Lord's girding Himself, making them recline, and coming forth to serve them, is signified that He will communicate to them the goods of heaven, all of which are from the Lord.

[4] In Matthew:

"The kingdom is like ten virgins; five were prudent, and five were foolish. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But when the bridegroom came, they all trimmed their lamps." And when the foolish came, which had no oil in their lamps, and said, "Lord, Lord, open to us," the Lord said, "I say unto you, I know you not. Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (25:1-13).

By the ten virgins are meant all those who belong to the church; by five are meant some of them, this being the signification of that number; by lamps are signified the things of faith, and by oil those of love. By the five prudent virgins therefore are meant those who are in love and thence in faith; but by the five foolish virgins are meant those who are not in love, but in faith alone; and because the latter have no spiritual life, therefore, because these are shut out of heaven, the Lord said to them "I say unto you, I know you not"; for those only have spiritual life who are in love and charity, because these are they who possess faith; hence it is quite clear that the words,

"Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,"

signify that they may receive spiritual life, which pertains to those who are in love and thence in faith. (These things may be seen more fully explained in Arcana Coelestia 4635-4638.)

[5] In Luke:

"Watch, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (21:36).

Here also, to watch means to receive spiritual life: to pray always signifies to prepare themselves.

[6] In the Apocalypse:

"Behold, I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked" (16:15).

That by watching is here signified the reception of spiritual life from the Lord, is clear from the fact that it is said,

"Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked."

Garments signify the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good, whereby man has spiritual life; and to walk naked signifies life without such knowledges as means, thus a life not spiritual but merely natural. That garments signify knowledges of truth and good may be seen below (n. 195), and that by being naked is signified the deprivation of them, see Arcana Coelestia 1073, 5433, 5954, 9960).

[7] In Lamentations:

"Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches; lift up thy hands to the Lord upon the souls of thy young children who have fainted through hunger, at the head of every street" (2:19).

Night here signifies a state in which there is no faith, as above; the beginning of the watches signifies a state when faith commences, thus a state of enlightenment, which exists when man becomes spiritual. By young children are meant those who love truths and desire to obtain them. To faint through hunger at the head of every street is to be deprived of spiritual life through a defect of the knowledges of truth and good. (That hunger denotes a defect of knowledges, and a desire for them, may be seen, n. 1460, 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5893; and that streets denote truths of doctrine, n. 2336.)

[8] Because being wakeful signifies the reception of spiritual life, it follows that sleeping signifies natural life without spiritual, since natural life compared with spiritual is as sleep to wakefulness, as said above. In this sense the word sleeping is used in Matthew:

"The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat" (13:24, 25).

In Jeremiah:

"When they have grown warm, I will set their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may sleep the sleep of an age and not awake" (51:39, 57).

In David:

"Consider and hear me, Jehovah, my God! lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death" (Psalms 13:3).

Again:

"The stout-hearted are become a prey, they have slept their sleep. At thy rebuke both the chariot and the horse have fallen into a deep sleep" (Psalms 76:5, 6).

The chariot and the horse signify the doctrine of the church and the understanding thereof, which are said to fall into a deep sleep when they are without truths, and hence the same is said of the member of the church who is without spiritual life by means of these. (That chariots and horses in the Word signify doctrine and the Intellectual, may be seen in the small work, The White Horse 1-5.)

10134. 'You shall offer one lamb in the morning' means the removal of evils by means of the good of innocence from the Lord in a state of love and consequently of light in the internal man. This is clear from the meaning of 'offering a lamb', or sacrificing it, as the removal of evils by means of the good of innocence from the Lord, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the morning' as a state of love and consequently of light in the internal man, also dealt with below. The reason why 'offering (or sacrificing) a lamb' means the removal of evils by means of the good of innocence from the Lord is that burnt offerings and sacrifices were signs of purification from evils and consequently from falsities, or what amounts to the same thing, the removal of them, and the implantation of goodness and truth and the joining together of these by the Lord, 9990, 9991, 10022, 10042, 10053. As regards purification from evils, that it is the removal of them, see the places referred to in 10057; and as regards 'a lamb', that the good of innocence is meant, 10132.

[2] The reason why the removal of evils, and the implantation of goodness and truth and the joining together of these, is accomplished by means of the good of innocence from the Lord is that all good, if it is to be good, must have innocence within it. Without it good is not good; for innocence is not only the ground in which truths are sown but also the very essence of good. Therefore how far a person possesses innocence determines how far his good becomes good and his truth has life from good, consequently how far he is endowed with life and the evils present with him are removed. And so far as these are removed determines how far goodness and truth are implanted and are joined together by the Lord. All this explains why the continual burnt offering was made with lambs.

All good in heaven and in the Church has innocence within it, and without it good is not good, see 2736, 2780, 6013, 7840, 7887, 9262.

What innocence is, 3994, 4001, 4797, 5236, 6107, 6765, 7902, 9262, 9936.

[3] The reason why 'the morning' means a state of love and consequently of light in the internal man is that in the heavens angels experience different states involving their love and therefore their faith, just as in the world people pass through different times of day that affect the heat and at the same time the light there, those times of day being, as is well known, morning, midday, evening, and night. So it is that in the Word 'morning' means a state of love, 'midday' a state of light in clearness, 'evening' a state of light set in obscurity, and 'night' or twilight prior to morning a state of love set in obscurity.

Such changes from one state to another take place in heaven, see 5672, 5962, 6110, 7218, 8426.

Morning there is a state of peace and innocence, thus a state of love to the Lord, 2405, 2780, 8426, 8812, 10114.

Midday is a state of light in clearness, 3708, 5672, 9642.

Evening is a state of light set in obscurity, 3056, 3833, 6110.

There is no night in heaven, only twilight, 6110, by which a state of love set in obscurity is meant.

[4] The reason why 'the morning' means a state of love and consequently of light in the internal man is that when an angel's state is one of love and light he functions in his internal man; but when his state is one of light and love in obscurity he does so in his external man. For angels have an internal man and an external, but when they function in the internal the external is virtually dormant, whereas when they do so in the external their state is grosser and duller. So it is that when their state is one of love and light they function in their internal man, thus in what is for them the morning, and when their state is one of light and love set in obscurity they do so in their external, thus in what is for them the evening. From this it is evident that changes of state are effected by their being raised to more internal things, thus to a higher sphere of heavenly light and heat, consequently nearer to the Lord, or by their being let down to more external ones, into a lower sphere of heavenly light and heat, and therefore further away from the Lord.

[5] It should be remembered that more internal things are higher ones and so are closer to the Lord, whereas more external things are lower ones and so are further away from the Lord, and that light in the heavens is Divine Truth which composes faith, while heat in the heavens is Divine Good that constitutes love, both emanating from the Lord. For the Lord is the Sun in heaven, the source of all the life that angels have, and consequently of all the spiritual and celestial life that people in the world have, see the places referred to in 9548, 9684. Regarding more internal things, that they are higher ones and so are closer to the Lord, see 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325.

[6] The love and faith of a person who is being regenerated, and also of a person who has been regenerated, in like manner undergo changes of state by being raised to more internal things or let down to more external ones. But there are few who are able to reflect on this matter, because they are unaware of what thinking and willing within the internal man and within the external man are, or even of what the internal man is and what the external man is. Thinking and willing in the internal man implies doing so in heaven, for this is where the internal man is; but thinking and willing in the external man implies doing so in the world, for that is where the external man is. Therefore when love to God and faith resulting from it govern a person he functions in his internal man, since he is now up in heaven; but when his love and resulting faith are set in obscurity he functions in his external, since he is then down in the world.

[7] These states too are meant in the Word by 'morning', 'midday', 'evening', and 'night' or early morning twilight, as are states of the Church. The first state of the Church is likewise called 'morning' in the Word, the second state 'midday', the third 'evening', and the fourth or last 'night'. But when the Church has reached its night time, that is, when love to God and faith exist there no longer, morning emerges from twilight for another nation, where a new Church is established.

[8] For the situation with the Church in general is like that with a person in particular. His first state is a state of innocence, thus also one of love towards parents, nursemaid, and also children of his own age. His second state is a state of light, for when he becomes a youth he learns the things of light, that is, the truths of faith, and believes them. The third state is reached when he begins to love the world and to love himself, which happens when he becomes a young adult and when he thinks for himself; and to the extent that these loves increase, faith decreases, and together with faith charity towards the neighbour and love to God. The fourth and last state is reached when he has no interest in these, more so when he rejects them.

[9] Such states are also the states of every Church from its beginning to its end. Its first state is in like manner a state of early childhood, thus also one of innocence, and consequently of love to the Lord. This state is called 'morning'. The second state is a state of light. The third state is a state of light set in obscurity, which is that Church's 'evening'. And the fourth state is a state when there is no love nor consequently any light, which is its 'night'. This is so because evils increase daily; and to the extent that they increase, one person like a contagious disease infects another, especially parents their children. Furthermore hereditary evils are intensified by each succeeding generation and in that condition passed down.

[10] The fact that 'morning' means the first state of a Church and also a state of love is clear in Daniel,

The holy one said, For how long is this vision, the continual [burnt offering], and the desolating transgression? He said to me, Up to the evening, [when it is becoming] the morning, two thousand three hundred times; then the sanctuary will be made correct. Daniel 8:13-14.

This refers to the Lord's Coming. 'The evening' is the state of the Church before His Coming, but 'the morning' is the first state of the Church after His Coming, and in the highest sense it is the Lord Himself. The Lord is meant in the highest sense by 'the morning' because He is the Sun of heaven, and the Sun of heaven never sets but is always rising in the east. This also explains why the Lord is called 'the Rising' or 'the East', consequently 'the Morning' as well, see 101, 2405, 2780, 9668.

[11] In Isaiah,

One was calling to me from Seir, What of the night, what of the night, O watchman? The watchman said, Morning comes, and also the night. Isaiah 21:11-12.

'The watchman' is used to mean in the internal sense one who observes the states of the Church and the changes it undergoes, and so to mean every prophet. 'The night' is used to mean the final state of the Church, 'morning' its first state. 'Seir' from where the watchman calls means the enlightenment of nations who are in darkness, for which meaning of 'Seir', see 4240; and for that of 'the night' as the final state of the Church, 6000. 'Morning comes, and also the night' means that even though enlightenment comes to those who belong to the new Church, night remains with those who are in the old one. 'Morning' has the same meaning in David,

In the evening weeping will abide ¹ , in the morning singing. Psalms 30:5.

And in Isaiah,

Around evening time, behold, terror! Before the morning, he is no more. Isaiah 17:14.

[12] Since 'the morning' in the highest sense means the Lord, and consequently love received from Him and offered back to Him, the manna, which was heavenly bread, rained down every morning, Exodus 16:8, 12-13, 21. For the Lord is meant by the bread which comes down from heaven, thus by the manna, see John 6:33, 35, 48, 50; and by 'the bread' heavenly or celestial love, which is love received from and offered back to the Lord, is meant, 2165, 2177, 3464, 4217, 4735, 5405, 5915, 9545. And it is because the Lord is the rising (or the east) and the morning, and because heavenly love comes wholly from Him, that He rose in the morning on the sabbath day, Mark 16:9 ² . Therefore also the day before the feast of Passover was called the evening or eve; for the feast of Passover was a sign of the Lord's presence and of His deliverance of faithful believers from damnation, 7867, 9286-9292.

[13] Anyone acquainted with the internal sense of the Word may recognize what is implied by Peter's denial of the Lord three times before the cock crowed twice, Matthew 26:34, 74-75; Mark 14:30, 68, 72; Luke 22:34, 60-61; John 18:27. For Peter represented the Church's faith, or what amounts to the same thing, the Church as regards faith. The time when the cock crowed meant the final period of the Church, a time of day which was also called 'cock-crow'. The triple denial meant a complete denial of the Lord at the end of the Church. That Peter represented the Church's faith, and so the Church as regards faith, see Prefaces to Genesis 18, 22, and also 3750, 4738; and that the words addressed to Peter [Matthew 26:34] meant that within the Church the Lord would be denied when it reached its final period, 6000, 6073(end), 10087. The Lord is denied when there is no longer any faith; and there is no faith when there is no longer any charity. 'Three' means what is complete, see 2788, 4495, 7715, 8347, 9198, 9488, 9489; and this is why Peter was told that he would deny three times. The fact that this happened in twilight, when morning was about to arrive, is clear in John 18:28; and the fact that cock-crow and early morning twilight are one and the same thing is evident in Mark,

Watch, for you do not know when the Master of the house will be coming - in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock-crow, or in the morning. Mark 13:35.

From all this it now becomes clear what 'the morning' means.

Notes de bas de page: