8890. 'You shall not do any work - you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates' means that at that time heaven and its blessedness are present in every single part of a person inwardly and outwardly. This is clear from the meaning of 'not doing any work' as rest and peace, thus heaven, for when a person is in heaven he is free from all apprehensiveness, uneasiness, and anxiety, and when free from these, blessedness is his; and from the meaning of 'you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your beast, and the sojourner within your gates' as every single part of a person inwardly and outwardly. For 'you' means the person himself, 'son' means his understanding, and 'daughter' his will, both of which reside in his internal man. 'Male slave' means his natural in respect of truth, and 'female slave' his natural in respect of good, thus both as they reside in his external man, while 'beast' means affection in general, and 'sojourner within the gates' factual knowledge in general. Thus every single part is meant. 'Son' means his understanding here because 'son' means truth, and truths constitute the understanding; and 'daughter' means his will because 'daughter' means good, and forms of good constitute the will. For the meaning of 'son' as truth, and so the understanding, see 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257; for 'daughter' as good, and so the will, 489-491, 2362, 3024; for 'male slave' as the natural in respect of truth, 3019, 3020, 3409, 5305, 7998; for 'female slave' as the natural in respect of good, 2567, 3835, 3849; for 'beast' as affection in general, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 2179, 2180, 3218, 5198, 7523, 7872; and for 'sojourner' as one who receives instruction in the Church's truths, 1463, 4444, 8007, 8013, so that 'the sojourner within your gates' is factual knowledge in general, since factual knowledge in general lies within the gates, that is, at the entrance to the truths the Church possesses.

202. The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial man, was not only forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge, that is, to learn that which comprised faith from sensory evidence and from facts; it was not even allowed 'to touch that tree', that is, even to think from sensory evidence and from facts about anything that was a matter of faith. This was to prevent them slumping from celestial to spiritual life, and in this way going down further still. The life of celestial angels is also the same. Those of them who are more interiorly celestial do not even allow faith to be mentioned or anything whatever which has a spiritual origin. If others mention it they perceive love instead of faith, with a difference known only to themselves. Thus anything that is a matter of faith they derive from love and charity. Still less do they allow themselves to listen to anything of a rational nature concerning faith, and least of all to anything of a factual nature; for they possess from the Lord by way of love a perception of what good and truth are. From perception they know instantly whether something is so or not so. Consequently when any statement about faith is made their response is either That is so, or That is not so, for they are perceiving from the Lord. This is what the Lord's words mean in Matthew,

Let your words be, YES, YES, NO, NO; anything beyond this is from evil. ¹ Matthew 5:37.

The present verse in Genesis says that they were not allowed even to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for if they did touch it, they would be subject to evil, that is, they would consequently die. All the same, celestial angels, like others, discuss various matters among themselves, but they do so in celestial language that is formed by, and derived from, love, a language that is more indescribable than the language of spiritual angels.

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