775. "Every vessel of precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble." This symbolically means that these Roman Catholics no longer have these because they do not have any knowledge of the goods and truths in ecclesiastical affairs to which such things correspond.

This statement is similar to the ones explained in nos. 772, 773, and 774 above. The difference is that the valuables here are various forms of knowledge, which are the lowest ones in a person's natural mind. And because they differ in character owing to the essence that lies within them, they are called vessels of precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble. For vessels symbolize forms of knowledge, here forms of knowledge in ecclesiastical affairs. Because various forms of knowledge are the containing vessels of goodness and truth, they are like vessels containing oil or wine.

Forms of knowledge are also found in great variety, and their recipient vessel is the memory. They are of great variety because they contain the interior elements of a person. They are also introduced into the memory either by intellectual deliberation or by hearing or reading them, according to the varying perception then of the rational mind. All of these things are present in forms of knowledge, as is apparent when they are reproduced, which is the case when a person speaks or thinks.

[2] But we will briefly say what vessels of precious wood, bronze, iron and marble symbolize. A vessel of precious wood symbolizes something known as the result of rational goodness and truth. A vessel of bronze symbolizes something known as the result of natural goodness. A vessel of iron symbolizes something known as the result of natural truth. And a vessel of marble symbolizes something known as the result of an appearance of goodness and truth.

That wood symbolizes goodness may be seen just above in no. 774. That precious wood here symbolizes both rational goodness and rational truth is due to the fact that wood symbolizes goodness, and preciousness is predicated of truth. For one variety of goodness is symbolized by the wood of the olive tree, another by the wood of the cedar, of the fig tree, of the fir tree, of the poplar and of the oak.

A vessel of bronze and iron symbolizes something known as the result of natural goodness and truth, because all metals, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead, in the Word symbolize goods and truths. They symbolize because they correspond, and because they correspond they are also found in heaven. For everything in heaven is a correspondent form.

[3] However, this is not the place to confirm from the Word what each kind of metal symbolizes owing to its correspondence. We will cite only some passages to confirm that bronze symbolizes natural goodness, and iron, therefore, natural truth, as can be seen from the following: That the feet of the Son of Man looked like bronze, as though fired in a furnace (Revelation 1:15). That Daniel saw a man whose feet were like the gleam of burnished bronze (Daniel 10:5-6).

That the feet of cherubim were seen sparking as with the gleam of burnished bronze (Ezekiel 1:7). (Feet symbolize something natural, as may be seen in nos. 49, 468, 470, 510.) That an angel appears whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze (Ezekiel 40:3). And that the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw was as to its head golden, as to its breast and arms silver, as to its belly and sides bronze, and as to its legs iron (Daniel 2:32-33). The statue represented the successive states of the church which the ancients called the golden age, silver age, bronze age, and iron age.

Since bronze symbolizes something natural, and the Israelite people were purely natural, therefore the Lord's natural humanity was represented by the bronze serpent, which people bitten by serpents had only to look at to be cured (Numbers 21:6, 8-9).

That bronze symbolizes natural goodness may also be seen in Isaiah 60:17, Jeremiah 15:20-21, Ezekiel 27:13, Deuteronomy 8:7, 9, 33:24-25

510. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. (11:11) This symbolically means that at the end of the prior church, as the New Church commences and grows, these two essential elements of the New Church are made living by the Lord in people who accept them.

Three and a half days means, symbolically, at the end and then the beginning (no. 505), thus at the end of the church still existing and the beginning of a new one, here the beginning of the church in people in whom the New Church commences and grows, because we are told now in regard to the two witnesses that the breath of life entered them and they stood on their feet.

The breath of life from God symbolizes spiritual life, and standing on their feet symbolizes natural life in harmony with spiritual life, and thus one made living by the Lord. This is the symbolic meaning because the breath of life refers to a person's inner being, called his inner self, which regarded in itself is spiritual. For it is a person's spirit that thinks and wills, and to think and will is, in itself, a spiritual activity. ¹ Standing on the feet symbolizes a person's outer being, called his outer self, which in itself is natural. For it is the body that says and does what the spirit in it thinks and wills, and to speak and act is a natural activity. That the feet symbolize natural things may be seen in nos. 49, 468.

[2] We need to say what all this means specifically. Everyone who is reformed is reformed first in respect to his inner self, and afterward in respect to his outer self. The inner self is reformed, not by simply knowing and understanding the truths and goods by which a person is saved, but by willing and loving them, and the outer self by saying and doing what the inner self wills and loves. To the extent the outer self does this, then, to the same extent the person is regenerated. He is not regenerated prior to that because before then his inner self is not present in the effect, but subsists only in the cause, and unless a cause has an effect, it dissipates. It is like a house founded on a field of ice, a house that sinks to the bottom when the sun melts the ice. In short, it is like a person without feet on which to stand and walk. The same is the case with the inner or spiritual self unless it is founded on the outer or natural self.

This, now, is what is symbolically meant by the two witnesses' standing on their feet after breath from God entered them, and also by similar statements in Ezekiel:

(Jehovah) said to me, "Prophesy regarding the breath...." And (when) I prophesied... breath came into them, and they... stood upon their feet... (Ezekiel 37:9-10)

Also in Ezekiel:

(The voice speaking to me said,) "Son of man, stand on your feet...." Then the spirit ¹ entered me... and set me on my feet. (Ezekiel 2:1-2)

And again in Ezekiel:

...I fell on my face. But the spirit ¹ ...entered me and set me on my feet... (Ezekiel 3:23-24)

This, too, is the meaning of the Lord's words to Peter:

...Peter said..., ."..(wash) not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to have his feet washed, and he is completely clean." (John 13:9-10)

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