1171. Stood afar off.- That this signifies not so now, in those things by reason of fear, is evident from the signification of standing afar off, which denotes to be in externals, concerning which see above (n. 1133); in this case, therefore, not to be in that foolish wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge, from which they before, through fear, confirmed the evils and falsities of their religion and its doctrine; for fear causes man to remove himself from these things when he sees those who were of such a character punished and tormented.

Continuation.- To the preceding observations we will add the following:-

1. That before reformation the light of the understanding is like the light of the moon, clear according to the knowledges of truth and good; but after reformation it is like the light of the sun, clear according to the application of the knowledges of truth and good to the uses of life.

2. The reason why the understanding has not been destroyed is that man may be able to know truths, and from them see the evils of his will; and when he sees these, may be able to resist them as if from himself, and thus be reformed.

3. But still, man is not reformed by virtue of understanding but by means of his understanding acknowledging truths, and from these seeing evils; for the operation of the Lord's Divine Providence is into the love of man's will, and from that love into the understanding, and not from his understanding into the love of his will.

4. That the love of the will, according to its quality, imparts intelligence; natural love from spiritual giving intelligence in things civil and moral; but spiritual love in natural giving intelligence in spiritual things. But love merely natural, and the conceit arising from it, imparts no intelligence in spiritual things, but rather gives the faculty of confirming whatsoever it pleases, and after such confirmation the understanding is so infatuated that it sees falsity as truth, and evil as good. This love, however, does not take away the faculty of understanding truths in their own light; it takes it away when it is present, but not when it is absent.

5. When the will is reformed and the wisdom which belongs to the understanding becomes that of the love which belongs to the will, or when wisdom becomes the love of truth and of good in its own form, then man is like a garden, in the time of spring, when heat is united to light, imparting life (animam) to the germinations. Spiritual germinations are the productions of wisdom from love, and there are in this case in every production a soul from that love, and its clothing from wisdom. The will is therefore like a father, and the understanding like a mother.

6. Such then is the life of man, not only the life of his mind (animus), but also that of his body, because the life of the mind acts in unison with the life of the body by correspondences. For the life of the will or love corresponds to the life of the heart, and the life of the understanding or wisdom corresponds to the life of the lungs; and these are the two sources of the life of the body. That this is the case is unknown, nevertheless it is from this fact that an evil man cannot live in heaven, nor a good man in hell. For each of these becomes as it were dead, if he is not among those with whom the life of his will and that of his understanding originating in it act in unison; among such, and among such only, does his heart beat responsively and his lungs breathe freely.

1133. Standing afar off for fear of her torment.- That this signifies, while they are in externals from dread of infernal punishments, is evident from the signification of standing afar off, which denotes to be in externals, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of the fear of torment, which denotes dread on account of infernal punishments, for these punishments are signified by torment. To stand afar off signifies to be in externals, because a man while he is in internals is in himself, for his love dwells there, and consequently his very life. The interior things of a man are those things which belong to his spirit, and these are meant in the Word by things near at hand, therefore exteriors, being remote from interiors, are meant by things afar off, here by standing afar off. Every evil man, also, while he is in externals, is unlike what he is when in internals, for not only does he then speak and act differently, but he also wills and thinks differently, his thought and desire then being that he may appear to be a civil, moral man, and also a spiritual man, and this is either on account of the law and its punishments, or for the sake of fame, and therefore for the sake of honour and gain, thus on account of the fear of losing these. That then a man is afar off from himself, is evident from this fact, that when he returns from externals into his internals, which he does when he is left alone, he then thinks and wills altogether differently, and also when he is with companions like himself he speaks differently. It is therefore evident, that to stand afar off in the spiritual sense, signifies to be in externals.

[2] The chief reason why an evil man from internals betakes himself to, or passes into externals, is fear. When therefore he sees the punishments and torments of his companions, fear closes his internals, and when these are closed, he comes into externals, and remains in them, so long as he mentally regards the punishment. Still his internal is not amended by punishments, but remains just as before, as soon therefore as the fear of punishment passes away, he returns into his own evils, which are in him interiorly, and which belong to his spirit, and consequently to his life. This may be illustrated by experience from the spiritual world. An evil spirit there is compelled by punishments not to speak or do evil, and in this state he continues so long as he remains in the place where the punishment is present, but as soon as the fear of punishment departs, he is evil as before. The case is similar in the world. So long as thieves, robbers, and other criminals, are in a city where all are restrained by the bonds of the law and its punishments, they do not steal or rob, but immediately they come into the woods, or into places where they do not stand in fear of the punishments of the law, or when they can pervert the law by cunning devices, and avoid its punishments by such means, they come into their internals and commit crimes.

[3] It is evident from these things, that externals are separated from internals, and stand as it were afar off. It is for this reason, that in the Word "afar off" signifies the external, or what is remote from the internal, as in the following passages.

In Isaiah:

"Hear, ye that are afar off, what I have done, and, ye that are near, know my power" (33:13).

Those who are afar off mean there the nations, because they are remote from internal truths, and those that are near mean those who are of the church, and in truths from the Word.

In the same:

Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth (43:6).

Here also sons and daughters mean the nations, which being remote from the truths and goods which are the internals of the church, are called sons from far, and daughters from the end of the earth. Sons mean those who are in truths, and daughters those who are in goods; the end of the earth signifies the ultimates of the church.

In the same:

"Attend, O islands, unto me, and the peoples from far. Behold they shall come to thee from far, and behold they shall come from the north and the west" (49:1, 12).

The islands, and the peoples from far, and from the north and from the west, also mean the nations, with whom the church would be established. These words in Jeremiah, "Tell to the isles afar off" (31:10), have a similar meaning.

In Zechariah:

"Those who are far off shall come, and shall build the temple of Jehovah" (6:15).

Here also those who are far off denote the nations, and the temple which they shall build is the church.

In Jeremiah:

"Am I a God at hand, and not a God far off" (23:23),

signifies that the Lord is God, to those who are within and also to those who are without the church, also to those who are in internal truths and to those who are in external truths.

In David:

"God, the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the sea of those who are far off" (Psalm 65:5).

The ends of the earth, and the sea of those who are far off, signify the ultimates of the church.

[4] In the opposite sense far off signifies evil, because this is in the external man; for all who are in evils and in falsities therefrom are external men. These are meant by nations and peoples afar off and from the end of the earth, in the following passages.

In Isaiah:

The nations "from afar, and from the end of the earth" (5:26).

Again:

The peoples "coming from the land far off from the end of the heavens" (13:5).

In Jeremiah:

The nations "coming from the land far off" against Jerusalem (4:16).

Again,

"I will bring" upon the house of Israel "a nation from far" (5:15).

Because Babel signifies evil of every kind, and profanation of good, therefore it is called "the land far off" (Isaiah 39:3).

That those who are far off signify those who are in the externals of the church, is evident also from those who are in externals in the spiritual world and those who are in internals, the latter being in the south and the former in the north, thus they are distant according to the degree of the reception of truth and good. That near means what is internal, may be seen above (n. 16).

[5] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed, and concerning the Lord.- Because God is infinite, He is, also omnipotent, for omnipotence is infinite power. The omnipotence of God shines forth from the universe, which is the visible heaven and habitable globe, and these together with all things in the visible heaven, and upon the habitable globe are the great works of the Omnipotent Creator. Their creation and preservation testify that they are from Divine Omnipotence, while their order and their collective reference to ends, from first to last, testify that they are from Divine Wisdom. The omnipotence of God shines forth also from the heaven that is above or within our visible heaven, and from the world (ab orbe) there, which is inhabited by angels, as ours is by men. There are there stupendous evidences of the Divine Omnipotence, which, because they have been seen by me, and revealed to me, I am permitted to mention. All the men who have died from the first creation of the world are there, being after death men as to form, but spirits as to essence.

[6] Spirits are affections which are of love, and thus also, thoughts; spirits of heaven affections of the love of good, and spirits of hell affections of the love of evil. The good affections, which are angels, dwell on a world (super orbe) which is called heaven, and the evil affections, which are spirits of hell, dwell at a great depth beneath them. The world is one, but divided as it were into expanses, one below another. The expanses are six; in the highest dwell the angels of the third heaven, and beneath these the angels of the second heaven, and beneath these the angels of the first. Below those dwell the spirits of the first hell, beneath them the spirits of the second hell, and beneath these the spirits of the third. All things are so perfectly arranged, that the evil affections, which are spirits of hell, are held in bonds by the good affections, which are angels of heaven - the spirits of the lowest hell by the angels of the highest heaven, the spirits of the middle hell by the angels of the middle heaven, and the spirits of the first hell by the angels of the first heaven. By such an arrangement of opposites the affections are held in equilibrium, as in the scale of a balance.

[7] Such heavens and hells are innumerable, being distinguished into companies and societies according to the genera and species of all affections, and these latter are in order and in connexion according to their nearer and remoter affinities. The case is the same in the heavens as in the hells. This order and connexion of the affections is known to the Lord alone, and the orderly arrangement of such variety of affections - as numerous as the men who have existed from the first creation, and who shall exist hereafter - belongs to infinite wisdom, and also to infinite power. That the Divine power is infinite, or that it is omnipotent, is very evident in the other world, from this circumstance, that neither the angels of heaven nor the devils of hell have the least power from themselves; if they had the least power heaven would fall to pieces, hell would become a chaos, and every man would perish with them.