172. Of the Profane and Profanation, spoken of above at (n. 169).

Profanation is a commixture of good and evil, as also of truth and falsity in man (n. 6348). None can profane goods and truths, or the holy things of the church and the Word, except those who first acknowledge, believe, and still more live according to them, and afterwards recede from and do not believe, and who live to themselves and the world (n. 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 3398-3399, 3898, 4289, 4601, 8394, 10287). He who believes truths in his childhood, and afterwards does not believe them, profanes lightly; but he who confirms truths in himself and after that denies them, profanes grievously (n. 6959, 6963, 6971). They who believe truths, and live evilly, commit profanation; as also they who do not believe truths and live holily (n. 8882). If man, after repentance of heart, relapses to his former evils, he profanes, and then his latter state is worse than his former (n. 8394). Those in the Christian world who defile the holy things of the Word by unclean thoughts and discourses, profane (n. 4050, 5390). There are various kinds of profanation (n. 10287).

They who do not acknowledge holy things cannot profane them, still less they who do not know them (n. 1008, 1010, 1059, 9188, 10287). They who are within the church, can profane holy things, but not they who are out of it (n. 2051). The Gentiles, because out of the church, and who do not have the Word, cannot profane (n. 1327-1328, 2051, 9021). Neither can the Jews profane the holy interior things of the Word and the church, because they do not acknowledge them (n. 6963). Therefore interior truths were not revealed to the Jews, for if they had been revealed and acknowledged, they would have profaned them (n. 3398, 3479, 6963). Profanation is meant by the words of the Lord above quoted at n. 169:

When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, but finding none; then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I went out; and when he comes and finds it empty, and swept, and garnished, then he goes away, and takes to himself seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in they dwell there, and the latter things of the man become worse than the first (Matt. 12:43-45).

"The unclean spirit going out of a man," signifies the repentance of him who is in evil; his "walking through dry places and not finding rest" signifies that to such a person, a life of good is of that quality; "the house" into which he returned, and which he found empty, swept, and garnished, signifies the man himself, and his will, as being without good. "The seven spirits" which he took to himself and with whom he returned, signify evil conjoined to good; "his state then being worse than his former," signifies profanation. This is the internal sense of these words, for the Lord spoke by correspondences. The same thing is meant by the words of the Lord to the man whom He healed in the Pool of Bethesda:

Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (John 5:14).

Also by these words of the Lord:

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:40).

"To be converted and healed," signifies to profane, which takes place when truth and good are acknowledged, and afterwards rejected, which would have been the case if the Jews had been converted and healed.

The lot of profaners in the other life is the worst of all, because the good and truth which they have acknowledged remain, and also the evil and falsity; and because they cohere, a tearing asunder of the life takes place (n. 571, 582, 6348). The greatest care is therefore taken by the Lord, to prevent profanation (n. 2426, 10287). Therefore man is withheld from acknowledgment and faith, if he cannot remain therein to the end of life (n. 3398, 3402). On this account also man is rather kept in ignorance, and in external worship (n. 301-303, 1327-1328). The Lord also stores up the goods and truths which man has received by acknowledgment, in his interiors (n. 6595).

Lest interior truths should be profaned, they are not revealed before the church is at its end (n. 3398-3399). Wherefore the Lord came into the world, and opened interior truths, when the church was wholly vastated (n. 3398). See what is adduced on this subject in the work on The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed (n. 73, 74).

In the Word "Babel" signifies the profanation of good, and "Chaldea," the profanation of truth (n. 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321-1322, 1326). These profanations correspond to the prohibited degrees, or foul adulteries, spoken of in the Word (n. 6348). Profanation was represented in the Israelitish and Jewish church by eating blood, wherefore this was so severely prohibited (n. 1003).

8985. 'And if the slave says plainly' means thought then springing from the implanted truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thought, dealt with in 7094, 7107, 7244; and from the meaning of 'the slave' as truth without complementary good, dealt with in 8974, at this point this truth when it has been strengthened and implanted, since it is speaking of that slave when about to go out, 8984. 'The slave' is said to mean truth, though a person imbued with truth devoid of complementary good is meant. The reason for saying that 'the slave' means truth and not a person imbued with such truth is that when angels speak they do so in the abstract, that is, without envisaging actual persons. For in heaven they think about matters without envisaging persons, because when their thought involves persons it brings to mind a community associated with the matter they are thinking about; and when this happens their thought is narrowed down to and becomes fixed on that community.

[2] In heaven thinking about a place leads to being present in that place, and their presence in that community would attract towards itself the thoughts of those within the community, and so would disrupt the inflow from the Divine there. It is quite different when they speak in the abstract about some matter; their thought then spreads out in every direction in accord with the heavenly form which the influx emanating from the Divine produces, without causing disruption in any community. For it reaches into communities' general spheres, yet without having an effect on or unsettling anyone within the community, and so without impairing anyone's freedom to think in accord with the inflow from the Divine. In short, abstract thought can pass through the whole of heaven without hindrance anywhere; but thought narrowed down to persons or places becomes fixed and static.