933. 22:2 In between the street and the river on the one side and the other was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits. This symbolically means that inmostly present within the doctrinal truths and consequent life in the New Church is the Lord in His Divine love, from whom flow all the goods that a person in that church does, apparently as though of himself.

In between means, symbolically, in the inmost, and so in everything round about (nos. 44, 383). The street symbolizes the church's doctrinal truth (nos. 501, 917). The river symbolizes an abundance of Divine truth (nos. 409, 932). On the one side and the other symbolizes to the right and to the left, and truth to the right is truth seen clearly, and truth to the left is truth seen dimly. For in heaven the south is to the right, which symbolizes truth seen clearly, while the north is to the left, which symbolizes truth seen dimly (no. 901). The tree of life symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine love (no. 89). Fruits symbolize the goods of love and charity that are called good works, as will be seen in the next number. The number twelve symbolizes all and is predicated of the goods and truths of the church (no. 348). If we gather all of this into a single meaning, it follows that the statement, "in between the street and the river on the one side and the other was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits," symbolically means that inmostly present within the doctrinal truths and consequent life in the New Church is the Lord in His Divine love, from whom flow all the goods that a person does, apparently as though of himself.

[2] This is the case with people who turn directly to the Lord and refrain from evils because they are sins, thus with people who will be in the Lord's New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. For people who do not turn directly to the Lord cannot be conjoined with Him, thus not with the Father either, and therefore they cannot possess the love that comes from the Divine. Indeed, it is sight that conjoins - not an intellectual sight alone, but a sight of the intellect that springs from an affection of the will. And an affection of the will is present only if a person keeps the Lord's commandments. Consequently the Lord says,

He who... keeps (My commandments,) it is he who loves Me... And...(I) will come to him and make (My) abode with him. (John 14:21-24)

[3] We say "inmostly present within the doctrinal truths and consequent life in the New Church" because in spiritual matters everything comes from and emanates from what is inmost, as from a fire and its light in the center extending into the peripheries; or as from the sun, which is also in the center, come warmth and light throughout the solar system. Thus the case in the least of things is as it is in the greatest of things. Because the inmost of every truth is symbolized, therefore we say in between the street and the river, and not on either side of the river, even though that is what is meant. ¹

When the Lord is inmostly present, all goods of love and charity come from and emanate from Him, as is apparent from the Lord's own words in John:

(Jesus said,) "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-6)

脚注:

908. No one can see or therefore know that everything connected with heaven and the church springs from the goodness of love unless it is demonstrated. It is not known because it is not seen, and the reason is that goodness does not enter a person's thinking as truth does. For truth is seen in thought, because it is illumined by the light of heaven, whereas goodness is only felt, because it exists in response to the warmth of heaven, and when someone reflects on what he is thinking, rarely does he pay attention to what he is feeling, but only to what he sees.

For this reason the learned have attributed everything to thought and not to affection, and the church has attributed everything to faith and not to love, even though the truth that people in the church today call faith or the truth of faith is only a formal expression of the goodness of love, as may be seen in no. 875 above.

Now because a person does not see the goodness in his thinking, inasmuch as goodness, as we said, is only felt, and is felt in the guise of various kinds of delight, and because a person does not pay attention to what he is feeling in his thinking, but only to what he sees in it, therefore he calls good everything that he feels with delight; and he feels evil with delight, because it is inherent in him from birth to do so and emanates from his love of self and the world. That is why people do not know that the goodness of love is everything in heaven and the church, and exists in a person only from the Lord, and why it flows in from the Lord only in someone who refrains from evils and their delights as sins.

[2] This is the meaning of the Lord's declaration that the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments: you shall love God above all things, and the neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40).

Moreover I can assert that a person cannot possess a grain of truth that is in itself true except to the extent that it springs from the goodness of love from the Lord, and so cannot possess a grain of faith that is in itself faith, that is, a living, saving and spiritual faith, except to the extent that it springs from charity from the Lord.

Since the goodness of love is everything in heaven and the church, therefore the whole of heaven and the whole church are set in order in accordance with the affections of people's love, and not in accordance with any of their thinking divorced from those affections. For thought is affection given form, as speech is sound given form.