The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.

1176. Saying, Woe, woe, that great city, wherein all that had ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her costliness, signifies lamentation over the doctrine and religious persuasion by which all who confirmed them by reasonings from the natural man made gains. This is evident from the signification of "Woe, Woe," as being lamentation (See n. 1165); from the signification of "the great city," as being the doctrine and religious persuasion (See n. 1134); from the signification of "to be made rich by her costliness," as being to make gains by these means; also from the signification of "having ships in the sea," as being to confirm these by reasonings from the natural man. "Those who have ships in the sea" have the same signification as "pilot, all employed on ships, sailors, and they that work at sea," in the seventeenth verse; and these signify all who believe themselves to be in wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge, and who have confirmed the falsities of that doctrine and religious persuasion by reasonings from the natural man, as may be seen above (n. 1170).

(Continuation)

[2] Because the Divine providence acts into the affections that belong to man's love and thus to his will, leading him in and from his affection into another that is near and related to it by means of his freedom, and so imperceptibly that man has no knowledge of how it acts, and in fact hardly knows that there is a Divine providence; for this reason many deny providence, and confirm themselves against it. This is done in consequence of the various things that happen and arise, as that the arts and deceits of the wicked are successful, that impiety prevails, that there is a hell, that the understanding is blinded to spiritual things, and that this gives rise to so many heresies, each one of which, starting from a single head, flows out into assemblies and nations and becomes permanent, like popery, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Melancthonism, Moravianism, Arianism, Socinianism, Quakerism, Enthusiasm, and even Judaism, and with these naturalism and atheism; and outside of Europe extending through many kingdoms, Mohammedanism, and also paganism, in which are various kinds of worship, and in some cases no worship at all.

[3] All who do not think on these subjects from the Divine truth say in their heart that there is no Divine providence; and those who are perplexed about it assert that there is a Divine providence, but that it is only universal. When either of these hear that there is a Divine providence in every least particular of man's life they either give no heed to it or do give heed to it; those who give no heed to it, casting the truth behind them and turning away, and those who do give heed to it turning away like the others, and yet they turn back their faces, merely to see whether there is anything in it; and when they see they say to themselves, This is mere affirmation. Some of these latter do affirm the truth with the lips, but not with the heart. Since, then, it is important that the blindness arising from ignorance, or the thick darkness arising from absence of light, should be dissipated, it is permitted to see 1. That the Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately through those things in man that are from the hearing and sight.

2. And yet the Lord provides that man may be reformed and saved by those things that he adopts as his religion.

3. And for every nation the Lord provides a universal means of salvation.