9408. 'And it was like the substance of the sky for clearness' means the translucence of the angelic heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sky (or heaven)' as the angelic heaven, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'clearness' or purity of substance, when said of the sky, as translucence. What the translucence of the angelic heaven is when the Word is the subject must be stated briefly. The angelic heaven is said to be translucent when God's truth shines through; for the whole of heaven is nothing other than a receptacle of God's truth. Each angel is an individual recipient of it, so that all the angels or heaven as a whole is a general recipient. This explains why heaven is called 'God's dwelling-place' and also 'God's throne'. For 'dwelling-place' means God's truth emanating from the Lord and received in the inmost heaven, which in comparison is good, 8269, 8309; and 'throne' means God's truth emanating from the Lord and received in the middle heaven, 5313, 6397, 8625, 9039. Since that which shines through, out of the sense of the letter of the Word, is God's truth as it exists in the heavens, it is the angelic heaven that shines through. For the Word is Divine Truth adjusted to all the heavens, and as a consequence of this it joins the heavens to the world, that is, angels to men, 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, 9396. From all this it is evident what the words 'the translucence of the angelic heaven' are used to mean.

[2] The reasons why in the internal sense 'the sky (or heaven)' means the angelic heaven lie with correspondence and also with the appearance. So it is that where the words 'heavens' and 'heavens of heavens' occur in the Word the angelic heavens are meant in the internal sense. For the ancients had no other idea of the visible sky than this, that the inhabitants of heaven lived there and that the stars were their dwelling-places. At the present day too, simple people - especially young children - have the same idea. So it is also that people look upwards to the sky or heaven when they worship God. This action too arises from correspondence; for a sky with stars appears in the next life, but this is not the sky seen by people in the world. Instead it is a sky that takes on an appearance which accords with the spirits and angels' state of intelligence and wisdom. The stars in it are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, and the clouds which are sometimes seen in the sky vary in meaning according to their colours, translucence, and movements, the blue of the sky being truth transparent with good. All this goes to prove that by 'heavens' the angelic heavens are meant. But by the angelic heavens God's truths are meant, because angels are recipients of God's truth emanating from the Lord.

[3] Similar things are meant by 'heavens' in David,

Praise Jehovah, heavens of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:4.

In the same author,

Make melody to the Lord who rides above the heaven of the heaven of old. Psalms 68:33.

In the same author,

By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the spirit ¹ of His mouth. Psalms 33:6.

In the same prophet,

The heavens recount His glory, and the firmament declares the works of His hands. Psalms 19:1.

In the Book of Judges,

O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds indeed dropped water. Judges 5:4.

In Daniel,

The horn of the he-goat grew right on towards the host of the heavens, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. Daniel 8:10.

In Amos,

The Lord Jehovih, who builds His steps in the heavens ... Amos 9:6.

In Malachi,

If there is food in My house I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for you. Malachi 3:10.

In Isaiah,

Look out from the heavens, and see from the dwelling-place of Your holiness and of Your glory. Isaiah 63:15.

In Moses,

Blessed by Jehovah is the land of Joseph, in regard to the precious things of heaven, to the dew. Deuteronomy 33:13.

In Matthew,

Jesus said, You shall not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne. He who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by Him who sits on it. Matthew 5:32; 23:22.

[4] In these and very many other places 'heavens' means the angelic heavens. And since the Lord's heaven on earth is the Church, the Church too is meant by 'heaven', as in the following places: In John,

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away. Revelation 21:1.

In Isaiah,

Behold, I am creating new heavens and a new earth; therefore the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. ² Isaiah 65:17.

In the same prophet,

The heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment. Isaiah 51:6.

In the same prophet,

I clothe heaven with darkness, and I make sackcloth its covering. Isaiah 50:3.

In Ezekiel,

I will cover the heavens, and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. And all the bright lights in heaven I will make dark, and I will put darkness over the land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

In Matthew,

After the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

What the meaning is of 'sun', 'moon', 'stars', and 'in the heavens', see 4056-4060.

In Isaiah,

O Jehovah God of Israel, You are God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Isaiah 37:16.

In the same prophet,

[I am] Jehovah who makes all things, who spreads out the heavens Alone, who stretches out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah who created the heavens, who formed the earth, and made it, and prepared it, did not create it an emptiness. Isaiah 45:18.

[5] In the internal sense 'heaven and earth' in these and other places means the Church, the internal Church being meant by 'heaven' and the external Church by 'earth', see 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535. From all this it is evident that by creation in the earliest chapters of Genesis, where it says, In the beginning God created heaven and earth, Genesis 1:1, And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, Genesis 2:1, a new Church is meant. For creation there describes regeneration, which is also called the new creation, as has been shown and may be seen in the explanations of those chapters.

998. (Verse 13) And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast. That this signifies, from the thought, reasoning, religion, and doctrine of those who are in faith alone, and in confirmations thereof from the natural man, is evident from the signification of the mouth, as denoting thought, reasoning, religion, and doctrine (concerning which see n. 580, 782, 794); and from the signification of the dragon, as denoting those who are in faith alone, both as to doctrine and as to life (concerning which see n. 714, 715, 716, 737); and from the signification of the beast, as denoting those who by reasonings from the natural man confirm faith alone (see n. 773). For there were two beasts, one out of the sea, the other ascending out of the earth; and by the beast out of the sea is meant that faith confirmed by reasonings from the natural man; and by the beast out of the earth is meant that faith confirmed from the literal sense of the Word, and thence its falsification. But, in this case, the beast ascending out of the sea is meant; thus, faith confirmed by reasonings, because it is added, from the mouth of the false prophet. And by the false prophet is signified the same as by the beast out of the earth, namely, faith alone confirmed by the Word; thus, the doctrine of falsity from falsified truths.

[2] By these and the following words is described how the doctrine concerning faith alone has rendered obtuse, and almost extinguished, the power of understanding Divine truth, which every man has from the Lord, so far as falsities from evil do not prevent influx and prevent anything from heaven being perceived. For a man is like a garden which receives light, but not heat, equally in winter and summer. According as it receives heat, it flourishes and bears fruit. So, with man, he can equally receive light, that is, understand Divine truth, whether he is evil or good; but still he cannot flourish and become fruitful, that is, be wise and do works that are good, except so far as he receives heat, that is, the good of love.

[3] It is believed by many that, because the learned are well acquainted with the Word and doctrine from the Word, they are more intelligent and wiser than others. But they have no more intelligence and wisdom than agrees with their spiritual heat, that is, their good of love. For it is according to this that the faculty of understanding truths is opened and vivified; but this very faculty is as it were covered over and obliterated by the evils of the love of the proprium. That such persons have, nevertheless, the intellectual faculty, however covered over and obliterated, I have frequently heard testified by experience. For spirits, who were wholly in falsities from evil, and in their heart denied a Divine influx into all the things of the understanding of truth and of the will of good, thus the Divine Providence, and thence confirmed in themselves that all things are the result of nature and their own prudence, although they had, so to speak, no faculty of understanding truths when they thought about them in themselves; yet, when they heard from others that the Divine is everything, and the natural is merely the instrument of an artificer, they then understood these things as clearly as those who taught them, and like others who have confirmed themselves in that Divine truth. But immediately they ceased to pay attention, they fell back into things of a contrary kind, and no longer understood them, because they rendered them obscure by the falsities they had confirmed. It was evident, therefore, that the faculty of understanding truth, or of receiving light from heaven, dwells in all, yet that they only receive so far as by their life they are in the good of love; just as a garden, which admits light from the sun equally in winter as in summer, yet flourishes and bears fruit so far, at the same time, as it receives heat from the sun, as is the case in spring and summer.

Continuation of the Sixth Precept:-

[4] Man has intelligence and wisdom in the measure and quality of the conjugial love with him. The reason is, that conjugial love descends from the love of good and truth, as an effect from its cause, or as the natural from its spiritual; and from the marriage of good and truth the angels of the three heavens also have all their intelligence and wisdom. For intelligence and wisdom is nothing but the reception of light and heat from the Lord as a Sun, that is, the reception of Divine truth conjoined with Divine Good, and of Divine Good conjoined with Divine truth; thus, it is the marriage of good and truth from the Lord.

That it is so has been quite evident from the angels in the heavens. When separated from their conjugial partners, they are indeed in intelligence, but not in wisdom, whereas when they are with their conjugial partners, they are also in wisdom. And I wondered at this, that as they turn their faces to each other they are in a state of wisdom, for the conjunction of truth and good is effected in the spiritual world by aspect (aspectus). And the wife there is good, and the man there is truth, therefore, as truth turns itself to good, so truth becomes living.

By intelligence and wisdom is not meant cleverness in reasoning about truths and goods, but the faculty of seeing and understanding truths and goods; this faculty a man has from the Lord.