3701. And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. That this signifies infinite and eternal communication and the consequent conjunction; and that from what is lowest there is as it were an ascent, and afterwards when the order is inverted a descent; is evident from the signification of “angels,” as being something Divine of the Lord, which is meant by them when they are mentioned in the Word (see n. 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039). That in the present case they signify Divine truth, is evident from their being called the angels “of God,” for “God” is named when in the internal sense truth is treated of, but “Jehovah” when good is treated of (n. 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822); and this is the reason why although “Jehovah” is presently named, and it is said, “behold Jehovah standing upon it,” still they are here called angels of “God;” for the subject is the truth from which is good, which is here represented by Jacob, as has been frequently said above. That by “ascending and descending on the ladder” is in the supreme sense signified infinite and eternal communication and the consequent conjunction, is evident without further explication. Communication, and the consequent conjunction, cannot be predicated of the Lord’s Divine Itself, and of His Divine Human, unless at the same time they are said to be infinite and eternal; for in the Lord all is infinite and eternal; infinite in respect to being, and eternal in respect to manifestation. From all that has been said it is evident that of the “ladder set on the earth, and its head reaching to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it,” the sum total of the signification is an ascent as it were from what is lowest, and afterwards when the order is inverted, a descent.

[2] How the case is with this ascent and descent, may be seen from what has been said and shown above (n. 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3607, 3610, 3665, 3690). But as this order, which is that of the regeneration of man, and which is described in the internal sense of this and the following verses, is altogether unknown in the church, the nature of it may be further illustrated. It is known that man is born into the nature of his parents, and of his grandfathers, and also of those who have been his ancestors for ages; thus he is born into the hereditary evil of them all successively accumulated, insomuch that as regards what is from himself he is nothing but evil. The result of this is that as to both understanding and will man has been utterly destroyed; and of himself wills nothing of good, and consequently understands nothing of truth; and therefore that which he calls good and believes to be good, is evil; and that which he calls truth and believes to be truth, is falsity. For example: loving himself above others; desiring better for himself than for others; coveting what belongs to another; taking thought for himself alone, and not for others except for the sake of himself. As of himself man is desirous of these things he therefore calls them goods, and also truths; and what is more, if anyone injures or endeavors to injure him in respect to these goods and truths as he calls them, he hates him, and also burns with revenge toward him, desires and even seeks his ruin, and feels delight in it, and this in proportion as he actually confirms himself in such things, that is, in proportion as he more frequently brings them into actual exercise.

[3] When such a person comes into the other life he has the same desires; the very nature which he has contracted in the world by actual life remains, and the delight just referred to is plainly perceived. For this reason such a man cannot be in any heavenly society, in which everyone desires better for others than for himself, but has to be in some infernal society where the delight is similar to his own. This nature is that which must be rooted out while the man lives in the world, which cannot possibly be done except by the Lord through regeneration; that is, by his receiving a totally new will and derivative new understanding; or in other words by being made new in respect to both these faculties. But in order that this may be effected, the man must first of all be reborn as a little child, and must learn what is evil and false, and also what is good and true; for without knowledge he cannot be imbued with any good; for from himself he acknowledges nothing to be good but what is evil, and nothing to be true but what is false.

[4] To this end such knowledges are insinuated into him as are not altogether contrary to those which he had before; as that all love begins from self; that self is to be taken care of first and then others; that good is to be done to such as appear poor and distressed outwardly, no matter what may be their inward character; in like manner that good is to be done to widows and orphans simply because they are so called; and lastly, to enemies in general, whoever they may be; and that thereby a man may merit heaven. These and other such knowledges are those of the infancy of his new life, and are of such a nature that while they derive somewhat from his former life or the nature of his former life, they also derive somewhat from his new life into which he is thereby being introduced; and hence they are such as to admit into them whatever things are conducive to the formation of a new will and a new understanding. These are the lowest goods and truths, from which those who are being regenerated commence, and because these admit into themselves truths that are more interior or nearer to Divine truths, by their means there may also be rooted out the falsities which the man had before believed to be truths.

[5] But they who are being regenerated do not learn such truths simply as memory-knowledges, but as life, for they do these truths; but that they do them is from the beginning of the new will which the Lord insinuates entirely without their knowledge; and insofar as they receive of this new will, so far they receive of these knowledges, and bring them into act, and believe them; but insofar as they do not receive of the new will, so far they are indeed capable of learning such things, but not of bringing them into act, because they care merely for memory-knowledge, and not for life.

[6] This is the state of infancy and childhood in respect to the new life which is about to succeed in place of the former life; but the state of the adolescence and youth of this life is that regard is no longer had to any person as he appears in the external form but to his quality in respect to good; first in civil life, next in moral life, and lastly in spiritual life; and good is that which the man then begins to hold and love in the prior place, and from good to love the person; and at last, when he is still further perfected, he takes care to do good to those who are in good, and this in accordance with the quality of the good in them, and at last he feels delight in doing good to them, because he feels delight in good, and pleasantness in the things that confirm it. These confirmatory things he acknowledges as truths; and they also are the truths of his new understanding, which flow from the goods which are of his new will.

[7] In the degree that he feels delight in this good, and pleasantness in these truths, he has a feeling of what is undelightful in the evils of his former life, and of what is unpleasing in its falsities; and the result is that a separation takes place of the things which are of the former will and the former understanding from the things that are of the new will and the new understanding; and this not in accordance with the affection of knowing such things, but in accordance with the affection of doing them. Consequently the man then sees that the truths of his infancy were relatively inverted, and that the same had been by little and little brought back into a different order, namely, to be inversely subordinate, so that those which at first were in the prior place are now in the posterior place; thus that by those truths which were the truths of his infancy and childhood, the angels of God had ascended as by a ladder from earth to heaven; but afterwards, by the truths of his adult age, the angels of God descended as by a ladder from heaven to earth.

3690. And Jacob went out from Beersheba. That this signifies life more remote from Divine doctrinal things, is evident from the signification of “going,” as being to live (see n. 3335, 3685); thus “going out” signifies living more remotely; and from the signification of “Beersheba” as being Divine doctrine (see n. 2723, 2858, 2859, 3466); hence it is evident that by “Jacob went out from Beersheba” is signified life more remote from Divine doctrinal things. Life is said to be more remote when it is in external truths, and is lived according to them, as is the life of the infancy and childhood of those who are being regenerated (concerning whom see above, n. 3688).

[2] In order to show further what this life is, and what its quality, it may be expedient to add a few words. All the histories of the Word are truths more remote from essential Divine doctrinal things, but still are of service to little children and older children, in order that thereby they may be by degrees introduced into the interior doctrinal matters of truth and good; and at last to Divine things themselves; for within them, in their inmost, is the Divine. While children are reading them and are affected by them from innocence, the angels who are with them are in a happy celestial state, being affected from the Lord with the internal sense, consequently with those things which the historical facts represent and signify; and it is the celestial happiness of the angels that flows in and causes the delight with the children. In order that this first state may exist, that is, the first state of infancy and childhood of those to be regenerated, the histories of the Word were given, and were so written that all things therein both in general and in particular contain within them things Divine.

[3] How far removed these historical matters are from Divine doctrinal things can be seen from the following example from them. When anyone first knows only that God descended on Mount Sinai, and gave tables to Moses, on which were written the Ten Commandments, and that Moses broke those tables, and that God wrote like commandments on other tables; while delighted solely with this history, he is in the life of external truth remote from Divine doctrinal things; but afterwards when he begins to be delighted and affected with the commandments or precepts themselves therein contained, and lives according to them, he is then in the life of truth, yet still remote from the Divine doctrinal things themselves. For a life according to the commandments is only a moral life, the precepts whereof are known to all who live in human society, from civil life itself and the laws thereof-as that the Deity is to be worshiped, and parents honored; and that murder, adultery, and theft must not be committed.

[4] But he who is being regenerated is led by degrees from this more remote life (that is, moral life), into a life nearer to Divine doctrinal things; that is, into spiritual life. When this comes to pass the man begins to wonder why such commandments or precepts were sent down from heaven in so miraculous a manner, and written on tables by the finger of God, when yet they are known to every people, and are also written in the laws of those who have never heard anything from the Word. If when he comes into this state of thought he is among those who are capable of being regenerated, he is brought by the Lord into a still more interior state, namely, into a state of thinking that deeper things lie concealed therein, with which as yet he is unacquainted; and when he reads the Word in this state, he finds everywhere in the Prophets, and especially in the Evangelists, that each one of these precepts contains within it things still more heavenly.

[5] For example, in respect to the honoring of parents, he now sees that when men are born anew, that is, when being regenerated, they receive another Father, and then become His sons, and that it is He who is to be honored; thus that this is the sense that lies hidden within this precept. And by degrees he learns that this new Father is the Lord; and at last that He is to be honored by being worshiped, and that He is worshiped when He is loved. When one who is being regenerated is in this truth, and in a life according to it, he is in Divine doctrine, and is then in an angelic state, and from this state looks at the things he before knew as following on in order, and as flowing from the Divine as it were according to the steps of a ladder, above which is Jehovah or the Lord; and on the steps whereof are His angels ascending and descending; thus he sees the things with which he had previously been delighted as more remote from him according to degrees. The case is the same with the other precepts of the Decalogue (see n. 2609). From this it is now evident what is meant by a life more remote from Divine doctrinal things, which is here signified by “Jacob went out from Beersheba.”