1071. And he drank of the wine. That this signifies that he desired to investigate the things which are of faith, is evident from the signification of “wine.” The “vineyard” or the “vine” as has been shown, is the spiritual church, or the man of the spiritual church; the “grape” “bunches” and “clusters” are its fruit, and signify charity and what is of charity. But “wine” signifies the faith thence derived, and all things that belong to it. Thus the “grape” is the celestial of that church, and the “wine” is the spiritual of that church. The former, or the celestial, is of the will, as has been said before; the latter, or the spiritual, is of the understanding. That his “drinking of the wine” signifies that he desired to investigate the things of faith, and this by reasonings, is evident from his becoming drunken, that is, fallen into errors. For the man of this church had no perception, as had the man of the Most Ancient Church, but had to learn what was good and true from the doctrinal things of faith collected and preserved from the perception of the Most Ancient Church, which doctrinal things were the Word of the Ancient Church. Like the Word, the doctrinal things of faith were in many cases such as without perception could not be believed; for spiritual and celestial things infinitely transcend human apprehension, and hence arises reasoning. But he who will not believe them until he apprehends them, can never believe, as has been often shown before. (See n. 128-130, 195, 196, 215, 232, 233.)

[2] That “grapes” in the Word signify charity and what is of charity, and that “wine” signifies the faith thence derived and the things that belong to it, is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

My beloved had a vineyard in a horn of the son of oil, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4), where “grapes” denote charity and its fruits.

In Jeremiah:

Gathering I will gather them, saith Jehovah; there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree (Jeremiah 8:13), where the “vine” denotes the spiritual church; “grapes” charity.

In Hosea:

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree, at the beginning (Hosea 9:10).

“Israel” denotes the Ancient Church; “grapes” its being endued with charity. The sense is opposite when “Israel” denotes the sons of Jacob.

In Micah:

There is no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the first-ripe fig. The holy man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men (Micah 7:1).

“Cluster” denotes charity, or what is holy; “first-ripe fig” faith, or what is right.

[3] In Isaiah:

Thus saith Jehovah, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it (Isaiah 65:8); where “cluster” denotes charity, and “new wine” the goods of charity and the truths thence derived.

In Moses:

He washed His garment in wine, and His vesture in the blood of grapes (Genesis 49:11); a prophecy relating to the Lord. “Wine” denotes the spiritual from the celestial, the “blood of grapes” the celestial relatively to spiritual churches. Thus “grapes” denote charity itself, “wine” faith itself.

In John:

The angel said, Put forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe (Revelation 14:18).

Here the subject is the last times when there is no faith, that is, when there is no charity; for faith is no other than of charity, and essentially is charity itself; so that when it is said that there is no longer any faith, as in the last times, it is meant that there is no charity.

[4] As “grapes” signify charity, so “wine” signifies the faith thence derived, for wine is from grapes. This will be evident from the passages already cited about the vineyard and the vine, and also from the following.

In Isaiah:

Gladness is taken away, and exultation, from Carmel; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise; no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease (Isaiah 16:10),

meaning that the spiritual church, which is “Carmel” is vastated; “not treading out wine in the presses” means that there are no longer any who are in faith. Again:

The inhabitants of the earth are burned, and man shall be left feeble; the new wine shall mourn, the vine shall languish; they shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it; there is a crying in the streets because of the wine (Isaiah 24:6-7, 9, 11).The subject here is the vastated church, and “wine” denotes the truths of faith, there held to be of no value.

In Jeremiah:

They will say to their mothers, where is the corn and the wine? when they faint as one wounded in the streets of the city (Lamentations 2:12).

“Where is the corn and the wine” signifies where is love and faith; the “streets of the city” signify here, as elsewhere in the Word, truths; “being wounded in them” signifies not to know what the truths of faith are.

[5] In Amos:

I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof (Amos 9:14).

This is said of the spiritual church, or “Israel” of which planting vineyards and drinking the wine thereof is predicated, when it becomes such as to have faith from charity.

In Zephaniah:

They shall build houses, but shall not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink the wine thereof (Zephaniah 1:13; Amos 5:11).

Here is described the opposite condition, when the spiritual church is vastated.

In Zechariah:

They shall be as the mighty Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea, their sons shall see it and be glad (Zechariah 10:7); said of the house of Judah, that it should be such from the goods and truths of faith.

In John:

That they were not to hurt the oil and the wine (Revelation 6:6), meant that no injury is to be done to the celestial and the spiritual, or to what is of love and faith.

[6] As “wine” signified faith in the Lord, in the Jewish Church faith was represented in the sacrifices by a libation of wine (Numbers 15:2-15; 28:11-15, 18-31; 29:7-39; Leviticus 23:12-13; Exodus 29:40). Wherefore it is said in Hosea: The threshing-floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall deceive therein; they shall not dwell in the land of Jehovah; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat what is unclean in Assyria; they shall not pour out wine to Jehovah, neither shall [their libations] be pleasing to Him (Hosea 9:2-4).

Here the subject is Israel, or the spiritual church, and those in it who pervert and defile the holy and true things of faith by desiring to investigate them by means of knowledges and reasonings. “Egypt” is memory-knowledge, “Assyria” reasoning, “Ephraim” one who reasons.

195. The most ancient people did not compare all things in man to beasts and birds, but so denominated them; and this their customary manner of speaking remained even in the Ancient Church after the flood, and was preserved among the prophets. The sensuous things in man they called “serpents” because as serpents live close to the earth, so sensuous things are those next the body. Hence also reasonings concerning the mysteries of faith, founded on the evidence of the senses, were called by them the “poison of a serpent” and the reasoners themselves “serpents;” and because such persons reason much from sensuous, that is, from visible things (such as are things terrestrial, corporeal, mundane, and natural), it is said that “the serpent was more subtle than any wild animal of the field.”

[2] And so in David, speaking of those who seduce man by reasonings:

They sharpen their tongue like a serpent; the poison of the asp is under their lips (Psalms 140:3).

And again:

They go astray from the womb, speaking a lie. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, like the deaf poisonous asp that stoppeth her ear, that she may not hear the voice of the mutterers, of a wise one that charmeth charms [sociantis sodalitia] ¹ (Psalms 58:3-6).

Reasonings that are of such a character that the men will not even hear what a wise one says, or the voice of the wise, are here called the “poison of a serpent.” Hence it became a proverb among the ancients, that “The serpent stoppeth the ear.”

In Amos:

As if a man came into a house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? even thick darkness, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:19-20).

The “hand on the wall” means self-derived power, and trust in sensuous things, whence comes the blindness which is here described.

[3] In Jeremiah:

The voice of Egypt shall go like a serpent, for they shall go in strength, and shall come to her with axes as hewers of wood. They shall cut down her forest, saith Jehovah, because it will not be searched; for they are multiplied more than the locust, and are innumerable. The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north (Jeremiah 46:22-24).

“Egypt” denotes reasoning about Divine things from sensuous things and memory-knowledges [scientifica]. Such reasonings are called the “voice of a serpent;” and the blindness thereby occasioned, the “people of the north.”

In Job:

He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper’s tongue shall slay him. He shall not see the brooks, the flowing rivers of honey and butter (Job 20:16-17).

“Rivers of honey and butter” are things spiritual and celestial, which cannot be seen by mere reasoners; reasonings are called the “poison of the asp” and the “viper’s tongue.” See more respecting the serpent below, at verses 14-15.

Footnotes: