The Bible

 

Genesis 8

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1 And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated.

2 The fountains also of the deep, and the flood gates of heaven were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

3 And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.

5 And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

6 And after that forty days were passed, Noe, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven:

7 Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth.

8 He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth.

9 But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark.

10 And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

11 And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.

13 Therefore in the six hundreth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

14 In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.

15 And God spoke to Noe, saying:

16 Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee.

17 All livings things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increased and multiply upon it.

18 So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.

19 And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

20 And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar.

21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

22 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #911

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911. 1 As regards 'creeping thing that creeps' meaning corresponding things of a like nature residing with his external man, with a regenerate person external things correspond to internal, that is, they are conformable and subservient to them. External things are rendered subservient when a person is being regenerated, at which point he becomes an image of heaven. But before he has been regenerated external things have dominion over internal; and during that time he is an image of hell. Order entails celestial things governing spiritual things first, then natural things by means of spiritual, and lastly bodily things by means of natural. But when bodily and natural things have dominion over spiritual and celestial, order is destroyed. Once order is destroyed, man is an image of hell, and therefore through regeneration the Lord brings about the restoration of order; and once this has been restored a man becomes an image of heaven. In this way the Lord draws a person out of hell and bears him up to heaven.

[2] To make known the way in which the external man corresponds to the internal, let a brief explanation be given. Every regenerate person is a miniature heaven, that is, a replica or image of the whole of heaven, which also is why in the Word his internal man is called heaven. In heaven order is such that the Lord governs spiritual things by means of celestial, and natural things by means of spiritual. In this manner He governs the whole of heaven as one human being, and therefore heaven is called the Grand Man. Furthermore this same order exists with every individual in heaven. And when the same applies to man too, he likewise is a miniature heaven, or what amounts to the same, is the Lord's kingdom, for the Lord's kingdom is within him. In his case external things correspond to internal, that is to say, they are obedient to them, just as they are in heaven. For there are three heavens which are interrelated as one man - spirits constitute the external man, angelic spirits the interior, and angels the inmost, 459.

[3] It is quite the reverse with people who make life consist solely in bodily things, that is, in the desires, pleasures, appetites, and sensations of the body; with people, that is, who take no delight in anything other than that which accompanies self-love and love of the world, that is, which goes with hatred towards everyone who shows them no favour and does not serve them. Because with these people bodily and natural things have dominion over spiritual and celestial, not only is there no correspondence or obedience on the part of external things, but the total reverse exists, so that order is completely destroyed. And because order is thus destroyed they cannot be anything other than images of hell.

Footnotes:

1. There is no paragraph 910 in the Latin. Possibly a section which refers to beasts meaning things of the will has been accidentally omitted.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.