6272. 'Crosswise he put out his hands' means thus out of keeping with true order. This is clear from the meaning of 'crosswise putting out one's hands' as not in keeping with true order; for by acting in that way Israel makes the younger the firstborn and the older the later-born, so that the truth of faith is made prior and higher and the good of charity posterior and lower. (For the birthright consists in holding the prior and higher position, 3325.) How much evil is introduced into the Church by that exchange of positions is perfectly plain, for by making the exchange people cast themselves into such obscurity that they do not know what good is, or thus what truth is. For good is like a flame and truth is like the light that shines from it. If you take away the flame the light perishes too; or if any light is visible it is like a false light which does not come from the flame. That exchange of positions also causes Churches to clash and quarrel with one another about what is true, one group declaring that this idea is true, another that it is false. Worse than that, once they make faith take precedence in a group of people forming the Church, they begin to separate faith from charity, to rate charity as nothing in comparison with faith, and so to have no concern about the life they lead - a way of thinking to which a person is by natural disposition also inclined. The Church as a consequence perishes, for the life he leads is what constitutes the Church in a person, not doctrine divorced from life. Nor thus does trust, which is a high degree of faith, constitute the Church; for genuine trust cannot exist except with those who have charity since a life filled with trust springs from charity. Besides, the good of charity is in reality the firstborn, that is, occupies the first place, while the truth of faith only appears to be, see 3324, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4243, 4244, 4247, 4337, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 4977.

4977. 'And he put him in charge over his house' means that this good applied itself to that factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of his 'lord', who put him in charge, as good, dealt with above in 4977, and from the meaning of 'putting him in charge over his house' as applying itself to it - to factual knowledge or natural truth. This meaning is evident from what follows, where it says that 'whatever he had he gave into his hand', meaning that all belonging to that good was seemingly subject to the other's power and control. For good is the lord and truth its minister, and when it says that the lord put the minister in charge, that is, that good put truth in charge, the meaning in the internal sense is not that the lordship ceased to rest with that good but that it applied itself to the truth. For in the internal sense one perceives what a thing really is, whereas the sense of the letter presents it in the form of an appearance. The lordship always rests with good, but good applies itself so that truth may be joined to it.

[2] While a person is governed by truth, as happens before he has been regenerated, he knows scarcely anything at all about good. For truth flows in by an external route, or that of the senses, whereas good flows in by an internal route. Before he has been regenerated a person is aware of that which flows in by the external route, but not of that which comes by the internal one. Consequently unless in that state which comes first the lordship seemed to be given to truth, that is, unless good applied itself to it, that truth could never become attached to this good as its own. This is the same factor as has been presented many times before - that truth seemingly occupies the first place, that is, it is so to speak the lord, while a person is being regenerated, but that good plainly occupies the first place and is the lord once he has been regenerated, for which see 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3607, 3701, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930.