952. And girded about the breasts with golden girdles, signifies Divine spiritual good holding truths in order and connection. This is evident from the signification of "a golden girdle," as being what holds in order and in connection, for a girdle or belt encloses the garments and holds them together. Truths are so held in order and connection because truths are signified by "garments," and particularly by "linen garments." Spiritual good is meant, because the "breast" which was girt about, and the "gold" of which the girdles were made, signify that good. What has been said above, that:

The Son of man was seen in the midst of the lampstands, girt about the paps with a golden girdle (Revelation 1:3),

has a like signification, as may be seen explained above n. 65. (That a "girdle" or "belt" signifies a common bond for holding all things in order and connection may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 9341, 9828. What "the girdle of the ephod" signifies may be seen n. 9837; and what "the belt of Aaron's coat," n. 9944.) "Belt (or girdle)" has the same signification elsewhere in the Word (as in Isaiah 9, 11:5; 23:10; Jeremiah 13:1-7).

(Continuation respecting the First Commandment.)

[2] He is deceived who supposes that he acknowledges and believes that there is a God before he abstains from the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, especially from the love of ruling from the delight in ruling, and from the love of possessing the goods of the world from the delight of possession, and not from the delight of uses. Let a man confirm himself as fully as he can, from the Word, from preachings, from books, and from the light of reason, that there is a God, and thus be persuaded that he believes, yet he does not believe unless the evils have been removed that spring from the love of self and of the world. The reason is that evils and their delights block up the way, and shut out and repel goods and their delights from heaven, and prevent their confirmation. And until heaven is confirmed there is only a faith of the lips, which in itself is no faith, and there is no faith of the heart, which is real faith. A faith of the lips is faith in externals, a faith of the heart is faith in internals; and if the internals are crowded with evils of every kind, when the externals are taken away (as they are with every man after death), man rejects from them even the faith that there is a God.

6299. 'Saying, In you will Israel bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh' means so that its own spiritual may reside in the truth of the understanding and the good of the will. This is clear from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with in 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5873; and from the representation of 'Ephraim' as truth belonging to the understanding, and of 'Manasseh' as good belonging to the will, both dealt with above. So that the spiritual, which is 'Israel', may reside in them is what the words 'In you will he bless' and 'May God make you' mean.

[2] What this really means - that the spiritual, represented by 'Israel', may exist within the truth of the understanding and the good of the will, which are 'Ephraim and Manasseh' - is that the spiritual good represented by 'Israel' is the spiritual part of the internal Church, whereas the truth and good represented by 'Ephraim and Manasseh' are part of the external Church, see above in 6296. So that what is internal may be the internal part of the Church it must of necessity reside in the external part of it, for the external serves as the foundation on which the internal must stand and is the receptacle into which the internal must flow. For this reason the natural, which is the external, must of necessity be regenerated, for if it is not, the internal has no foundation or receptacle; and if it has no foundation or receptacle it is completely destroyed. This then is what is meant by 'its own spiritual may reside in the truth of the understanding and the good of the will'.

[3] Let the following example serve to shed light on this particular matter. The actual affection that charity arouses, that is to say, the calm and blissful feeling a person enjoys when he does good to his neighbour without thought of any reward, is the internal aspect of the Church. But willing it and doing it out of concern for truth, that is, because the Word prescribes it, are the external aspect of the Church. If the natural or the external is not in accord, that is, does not will or perform that action because it sees no reward and so nothing for itself in it - for such self-interest resides in the natural or external man through heredity and his own actions - the internal has no foundation or receptacle in harmony with it. Instead it has that which either turns aside, perverts, or smothers its inflow, and for that reason the internal is destroyed. That is to say, it is closed and blocked off, so that nothing from heaven can come through by way of the internal into the natural, apart from some ordinary degree of light through chinks all around which enables the person to think, will, and speak. But that ability acts in accord with what is in the natural, thus in favour of what is evil and false opposing what is good and true, to which end it makes that ordinary degree of spiritual light flowing in through the chinks all around subservient to itself.