872. 'The face ¹ of the ground' means those things that reside with the member of the Church, and the expression 'the ground' is used because it is the first stage at which man comes to be the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ground', dealt with already, as the member of the Church who is at that point called 'the ground' when the goods and truths of faith can be sown within him. Previously he is called 'the land', as in Genesis 1 where 'the land' refers to man prior to his becoming celestial, while Chapter 2, when he has become celestial, refers to him as 'the ground' and 'the field'. It is similar in the present chapter. The expression 'the land' and the expression 'the ground' are sufficient by themselves to enable someone to recognize what is meant in the internal sense, not only here but also anywhere else in the Word. 'The ground' in the universal sense means the Church, and as the Church is meant so too is the member of the Church for, as stated already, every member of the Church is the Church.

Bilješke:

5724. In the brain there are viscous substances that have something spirituous or life-giving mixed into them. Once those substances have been expelled from the blood in the brain, they first of all move in among the meninges, then among the fibres; some of them move into the large ventricles in the brain, and so on. The spirits who are related by correspondence to those viscous substances that have something spirituous or life-giving in them are seen almost directly above the middle of the head, a fair distance away. They are the kind who, from habit acquired during their lifetime, raise conscientious objections, introducing them where conscience has no part to play, and thereby over-burdening the consciences of simple persons. They are unaware of what ought to be a matter of conscience; for they bring conscience into everything that happens to them. These spirits also introduce a feeling of anxiety that is located in the abdomen underneath the diaphragm. They are present too in temptations, introducing feelings of anxiety that are sometimes unbearable. Those among them who correspond to phlegm that is not so life-giving keep a person's thought fixed on such anxious feelings. I have also been with them in their discussions so that I might know what those spirits were like. They try by various methods to over-burden a person's conscience. To do this had been the delight of their lives, and I was led to observe that they could not pay attention to reasons presented to them, and that they were unable to take the overall view of things from which they might then look at specific details.