9931. 'And engrave on it, [like] the engraving of a signet' means what is everlasting and has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere. This is clear from the meaning of 'engraving' as imprinting on the memory, 9841, 9842, thus also on the heart (for what is imprinted on the interior memory, or on one's life, is said to have been imprinted on the heart), and since this remains forever, what exists everlastingly is also meant; and from the meaning of 'the engraving of a signet' as a heavenly sphere, dealt with in 9846. The expression 'what has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere' is used because things which have been imprinted on the memory - in particular on the interior memory, which is 'the book of life', 2474 - have been imprinted in accord with a heavenly sphere. For a person governed by the good of love resulting from the truths of faith resembles heaven, indeed he is heaven in the smallest form it takes, see the places referred to above in 9279, 9632. This being so, the heavenly pattern resides in him; for all the communities in heaven have been arranged according to the heavenly pattern, because all affections for good and consequently thoughts of truth flow in accordance with that pattern, 9877. All factual knowledge too is arranged into the heavenly pattern when a person is governed by heavenly love, love being that which so arranges it, see 6690.

9846. 'With the work of one who works on stones, [like] the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel' means the heavenly pattern which all the truths arranged into their proper order in the memory by the good of love take on, that is, the truths there which have been grasped by a regenerated person's understanding and then set in order by his will. This is clear from the meaning of 'one who works on stones' as the good of love, thus the will part in the mind of one who has been regenerated, for this consists of the good of love (the will part of one who has been regenerated is a recipient of the good of love, and the understanding part is a recipient of the truths of faith); from the meaning of 'the engravings of a signet' as the heavenly pattern that all the truths possess, such as exists in the understanding of one who has been regenerated because the truths of faith there have been arranged into the heavenly pattern (for this reason a person who has been regenerated conforms to a small image of heaven, see the places referred to at the end of 9279, and the understanding part in the mind of a person who has been regenerated corresponds to the spiritual kingdom in heaven, while the will part corresponds to the celestial kingdom there, 9835; and from all this it is evident what the heavenly pattern of the truths present with a person may be); from the meaning of 'engraving stones' as imprinting on the memory, dealt with above in 9842, at this point imprinting such a pattern on the truths there; and from the meaning of 'the names of the sons of Israel' as the entire essential nature of truths and forms of good in their proper order, also dealt with above, in 9842-9845.

[2] The reason why 'one who works on stones' means the good of love or the will of someone who has been regenerated is that the good of love is at work arranging truths into order with a person while he is being regenerated, and afterwards, when he has been regenerated, is at work maintaining them in their proper order. For the truths are created to have complete similarity with the good and to respond to its every demand, and so to every demand of love since the good is an attribute of love. (The truth of this is clear from the consideration that a person acknowledges as truths things that he loves, and this being so, his love is what determines his understanding and acknowledgement of truths.) So it is that the truths constitute the form taken by the good. From all this one may recognize how the Lord leads a person by means of the truths of faith or by means of faith, namely by means of the good of love present with him, and in addition how the Lord also governs a person in an indirect way by means of heaven. For a person who has been regenerated conforms to a small image of heaven, as stated above, and since He governs heaven He also at the same time governs a person such as that.