387. And with death, signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life. This is evident from the signification of "death," as being the extinction of spiritual life (See above, n. 78, 186). That this is what "death" here signifies is evident from the series of things in the internal sense; for it is said that "there was given unto them power to kill with sword, with famine, and with death;" and "sword" signifies falsity destroying truth, "famine" the deprivation of the knowledges of truth and good; thence "death" signifies the extinction of spiritual life; for where falsity reigns, and where there are no knowledges of truth and good, there is no spiritual life, for spiritual life is acquired by means of the knowledges of truth and good applied to the uses of life. For man is born into all evil and falsity from evil; he is therefore born also into an entire ignorance of all spiritual knowledges; therefore in order that he may be led away from the evils and consequent falsities into which he is born, and be led into the life of heaven and be saved, he must needs acquire the knowledges of truth and good, by means of which he can be led into spiritual life and become spiritual. From this series of things in the internal sense it is evident that "death" here signifies the extinction of spiritual life; this is meant, too, by spiritual death.
Psalms 36
1
An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: "There is no fear of God before his eyes."
2
For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin.
3
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4
He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn't abhor evil.
5
Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
7
How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
8
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
9
For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.
10
Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11
Don't let the foot of pride come against me. Don't let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12
There the workers of iniquity are fallen. They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise. By David.
Arcana Coelestia #82
82. Verse 1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
These words are used to mean that the individual has now become spiritual to the point of being the sixth day. 'Heaven' is his internal man, and 'earth' his external. 'The host of them' are love, faith, and cognitions of them, which previously were meant by 'the great lights and the stars'. That the internal man is called 'heaven' and the external 'earth' becomes clear from the quotations from the Word given in the previous chapter, to which the following from Isaiah may be added,
I will make man (vir) more rare than fine gold, and man (homo) than the precious gold of Ophir. Therefore I will strike the heavens with terror, and the earth will be shaken out of its place. Isaiah 13:12-13.
And elsewhere in Isaiah,
You will forget Jehovah your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth. But I will put My words in your mouth and hide you in the shadow of My hand, that I may stretch out heaven and lay the foundation of the earth. Isaiah 51:13, 16.
These quotations show that both heaven and earth have reference to man (homo). They refer, it is true, to the Most Ancient Church, but the more interior contents of the Word are such that whatever statement is made about the Church is a statement about the individual member of the Church. If he were not the Church, he could not be a part of the Church, just as anyone who is not a temple of the Lord cannot be that which is meant by a temple, namely the Church and heaven. This also is why the Most Ancient Church is called Man (a singular noun).
