1. Prólogo del Autor

Cuando el Señor, ante Sus discípulos, habla de la consumación del siglo, por lo cual se entiende el último período de la vida de la iglesia, al final de la predicción acerca de los sucesivos estados de la misma con respecto al amor y a la fe, dice así:

Luego... después de la aflicción de aquellos días el sol se oscurecerá y la luna no dará su lumbre, y las estrellas caerán del cielo y las potencias del cielo serán conmovidas, y entonces aparecerá la señal del Hijo del Hombre en el cielo y entonces lamentarán todas las tribus de la tierra, y verán al Hijo del Hombre venir en las nubes del cielo con potencia y grande gloria, y enviará sus ángeles con trompeta y magna voz, y juntará sus escogidos de los cuatro vientos, del extremo de los cielos hasta el extremo de ellos (Mateo 24:29-31).

Él que toma estas palabras en el sentido literal cree que todo cuanto expresan según la descripción en ese sentido se verificará en el postrer tiempo llamado el último juicio, es decir, no solamente que el sol y la luna se oscurecerán y que las estrellas caerán del cielo, así como que la señal del Señor aparecerá en el cielos y que verán a Él en las nubes y también a los ángeles con trompetas, sino que también según la predicción en otro lugar, el mundo visible entero perecerá y que luego aparecerá un nuevo cielo con una nueva tierra. En esta creencia está hoy día la mayor parte en la iglesia. Pero los que así creen no conocen los arcanos que están ocultos en cada detalle del Verbo; porque en cada detalle del Verbo hay un sentido interior, el cual no expresa cosas naturales y mundanas como las que se hallan en el sentido literal, sino espirituales y celestiales, y esto no tan sólo con respecto a la significación de una pluralidad de palabras, sino también con respecto a cada palabra en particular, porque el Verbo es compuesto de puras correspondencias, a fin de que haya sentido interior en cada detalle. La índole de este sentido se puede conocer por todo cuanto con respecto al mismo se ha dicho y manifestado en "Arcana Coelestia, " lo cual también puede verse en compendio en la explicación de "El Caballo Blanco, " del cual se habla en el Apocalipsis. Según este sentido deben entenderse las cosas que en el lugar arriba indicado dijo el Señor acerca de Su venida en las nubes del cielo. Allí, el "sol" que se oscurecerá significa el Señor con respecto al amor, la "luna" el Señor con respecto a la fe, las "estrellas" los conocimientos del bien y de la verdad o sea del amor y de la fe la "señal del Hijo del Hombre en el cielo" la aparición de la Divina verdad; las "tribus de la tierra, " que lamentarán, todo cuanto pertenece a la verdad y al bien o sea a la fe y al amor; " la venida del Señor en las nubes del cielo con potencia y gloria, " Su presencia en el Verbo y la revelación; por "nubes" se significa el sentido literal del Verbo, y por "gloria" el sentido interior del Verbo; por "ángeles con trompeta y potente voz" se significa el cielo de donde procede la Divina verdad. Por esto es evidente que por aquellas palabras del Señor se entiende que al final de la iglesia, cuando ya no quede amor alguno y por ello tampoco fe alguna, abrirá el Señor Su Verbo con respecto a su sentido interior, y revelará los arcanos del cielo. Los arcanos que en lo siguiente serán revelados se refieren al cielo y al infierno así como a la vida del hombre después de la muerte. El hombre de la iglesia hoy día apenas sabe cosa alguna acerca del cielo y del infierno, ni de su vida después de la muerte, por más que todas estas cosas se hallan consignadas en el Verbo; hasta hay muchos, nacidos dentro de la iglesia, que las niegan, diciendo en su corazón: "¿Quién ha venido de allí y las ha contado?" Con el fin, pues, de que semejante negación, la cual reina principalmente entre aquellos que tienen mucho de la sabiduría del mundo, no contamine y corrompa también a los de sencillo corazón y de sencilla fe, me ha sido otorgado estar con los ángeles, y hablar con ellos como hombre con hombre y así como ver las cosas que hay en el cielo y también las que hay en el infierno, y esto por espacio de trece años, siéndome ahora permitido referirlas por oídas y vistas, esperando que así la ignorancia será iluminada y la incredulidad disipada. La razón por la cual tal inmediata revelación tiene lugar actualmente es que esta revelación es lo que se entiende por "la venida del Señor."

10067. And shalt sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments. That this signifies the reciprocal unition of Divine good and Divine truth in the higher heavens, is evident from the representation of Aaron, as being the Lord as to Divine good (see n. 9806), which is the Divine good of the Lord in the celestial kingdom (see n. 9946), or what is the same, in the higher heavens; and from the signification of the “garments of Aaron,” as being a representative of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord adjoined to His celestial kingdom (n. 9814); and from the signification of “sprinkling” upon them, as being to unite, for that which was sprinkled and poured upon anyone represented unition (as also above, in that the blood was to be sprinkled upon the altar round about, n. 10064).

[2] That the Divine Human of the Lord in the heavens is meant, is because in this passage and in what now follows the subject treated of is the Divine of the Lord in the heavens, and His unition with the angels there, thus the second state of the glorification of the Lord’s Human (n. 10057). Therefore here by Aaron is represented the Lord as to Divine good in the celestial kingdom; and by his garments, as to Divine truth in the spiritual kingdom adjoined to the celestial kingdom; thus as to both in the higher heavens. That it is the Divine Human from which these things are, is because no other Divine is acknowledged and worshiped in the heavens than the Divine Human of the Lord; for the Divine which the Lord called His “Father,” was the Divine in Him. That in the heavens no other Divine is acknowledged and worshiped than the Lord as to the Divine Human, can be seen from many of the Lord’s words in the Evangelists as from these:

All things are delivered unto Me by the Father (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22).

The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son (John 3:34-35).

The Father hath given to the Son power over all flesh (John 17:2).

Without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

Father, all Mine are Thine, and all Thine are Mine (John 17:10).

All power hath been given unto Me in the heavens and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

Jesus said to Peter, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heavens; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens (Matthew 16:19).

[3] That this is so is also plain from the fact that no one can be conjoined by faith and love with the Divine Itself without the Divine Human; for the Divine Itself, which is called the “Father,” cannot be thought of, because it is incomprehensible, and what cannot be thought of cannot become a matter of faith, nor therefore an object of love; when yet the chief of all worship is to believe in God, and to love Him above all things. That the Divine Itself, which is the “Father,” is incomprehensible, the Lord also teaches in John:

No man hath ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John 1:18).

Ye have neither ever heard the voice of the Father, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

[4] And that the Divine Itself, which is the “Father,” is comprehensible in the Lord through His Divine Human, He again teaches in John:

He that seeth Me, seeth Him who sent Me (12:45).

If ye have known Me, ye have known My Father also; and henceforth ye have known Him, and have seen Him. He that seeth Me, seeth the Father (John 14:6-11).

All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father; and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth anyone know the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall be willing to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22).

That it is also said, “no one knoweth the Son but the Father,” is because by the “Son” is meant the Divine truth, and by the “Father,” the Divine good, both in the Lord; and the one cannot be known except from the other; and therefore the Lord first says that all things have been delivered to Him by the Father, and then that he knoweth Him to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him. (That the “Son” denotes the Divine truth, and the “Father,” the Divine good, both of the Lord, see n. 2803, 2813, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897, 9807.) From all this it is now evident that the Divine in the heavens is the Divine Human of the Lord.

[5] What was represented by the blood of the second ram being sprinkled upon the altar round about, and by taking of this blood, and of the oil of anointing, and sprinkling upon Aaron and upon his garments, shall now be told. That these things signified the unition of Divine truth with Divine good, and of Divine good with Divine truth, in the Lord’s Divine Human, is plain from what has been already said and shown (n. 10064-10067). But the secret which lies within has not yet been disclosed. This secret is that there was a reciprocal unition of Divine good and Divine truth, thus of the Divine Itself which is called the “Father,” and of the Divine truth which is called the “Son.” The unition of Divine truth with Divine good is signified by the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar (n. 10064); these united are signified by the blood upon the altar, from which it was to be taken (n. 10065), and by the oil of the anointing, by which was signified the Divine good (see n. 10066); consequently the reciprocal unition of Divine truth and Divine good in the Lord’s Divine Human is signified by the sprinkling of this blood, and at the same time of the oil of anointing, upon Aaron and upon his garments (see just above).

[6] That the unition was reciprocal is very evident from the words of the Lord in the following passages, in John:

The Father and I are one; though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:30, 38).

Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:10-11).

Jesus said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. All things that are Mine are Thine, and all Thine are Mine (John 17:1, 10).

Now hath the Son of man been glorified; and God hath been glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself (John 13:31-32).

From these passages it can be seen that the Divine good of the Divine love, which is the “Father,” was united to the Divine truth, which is the “Son,” reciprocally in the Lord; and hence that His Human itself is Divine good. The like is also signified by His “coming forth from the Father, and coming into the world, and going to the Father” (John 16:27-29); and by “all things of the Father being His” (John 16:15); and by “the Father and He being one” (John 10:30).

[7] But these things can be better apprehended from the reciprocal conjunction of good and truth in the man who is being regenerated by the Lord, for as before said the Lord regenerates man as He glorified His Human (n. 10057). When the Lord is regenerating man, He insinuates the truth which is to be of faith in the man’s understanding, and the good which is to be of love in his will, and therein conjoins them; and when they have been conjoined, then the truth which is of faith has its life from the good which is of love, and the good which is of love has the quality of its life from the truth which is of faith. This conjunction is reciprocally accomplished by means of good, and is called the heavenly marriage, and is heaven with man. In this heaven the Lord dwells as in His own, for all the good of love is from Him, and also all the conjunction of truth with good. The Lord cannot dwell in anything of man’s own, because it is evil.

[8] This reciprocal conjunction is what is meant by the words of the Lord in John:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

All thing of Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, but I have been glorified in them. That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in them, and that they may be one in us (John 17:10, 21-22).

Reciprocal conjunction is thus described; but still it is not meant that man conjoins himself with the Lord, but that the Lord conjoins with Himself the man who desists from evils; for to desist from evils has been left to the man’s decision, and when he desists, then is effected the reciprocal conjunction of the truth which is of faith and of the good which is of love from the Lord, and not at all from man; for that from himself man can do nothing of good, and thus can receive nothing of truth in good, has been known in the church; and this also the Lord confirms in John:

Abide in Me, and I In you. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4, 6).

[9] This reciprocal conjunction can be illustrated from the conjunction of the understanding and will in man; his understanding is formed from truths, and his will from goods; and truths are of faith with him, and goods are of love. Man imbibes truths from hearing, through the sense of hearing; and from reading through the sight; and stores them up in his memory. These truths relate either to the civil state, or to the moral state, and are called memory-knowledges. The love of man which is of his will through the understanding looks into these things in the memory, and from it chooses those which are in agreement with the love; and those which it chooses, it summons to itself, and conjoins with itself, and by means of them strengthens itself from day to day. Truths thus vivified by love make the man’s understanding, and the goods themselves which are of the love make his will. The goods of love are also like fires there, and truths in the circumferences round about, vivified by the love, are like the light from this fire. By degrees, as the truths are kindled by this fire, there is kindled in them a desire to conjoin themselves reciprocally. From this comes a reciprocal conjunction, which is permanent.

[10] From all this it is evident that the good of love is really that which conjoins, and not the truth of faith, except insofar as this has the good of love within it. Whether you say love, or good, it is the same, for all good is of love, and that which is of love is called good; and also whether you say love, or the will, it is likewise the same, for that which a man loves he wills.

[11] Be it known that the things which are of the civil or moral state, just now spoken of, conjoin themselves in the external man; but those which are of the spiritual state, before spoken of, conjoin themselves in the internal man, and then through the internal in the external. For the things of the spiritual state, which are truths of faith and goods of love to the Lord, and which look to eternal life, communicate with the heavens, and open the internal man, and they open it insofar and in such a way as the truths of faith are received in the good of love to the Lord and toward the neighbor, from the Lord. From this it is evident that those are only external men who do not at the same time imbue themselves with those things which are of the spiritual state; and that those are merely sensuous men who deny these things, however intelligently they may seem to talk.