103. We can tell from the books of Moses that there was a Word among the ancients because he mentioned it and excerpted from it (Numbers 21:14-15, 27-30). We can tell that the narrative portions of that Word were called “The Wars of Jehovah, ” and that the prophetic portions were called “Pronouncements.” Moses quoted the following from the historical narratives of that Word:

Therefore it says in The Book of the Wars of Jehovah, “Waheb in Suphah and the rivers Arnon, a watercourse of rivers that goes down to [where] Ar is inhabited and rests along the border of Moab.” (Numbers 21:14-15)

In that Word as in ours, the wars of Jehovah were understood to be, and served to describe in detail, the Lord’s battles against hell and his victories over it when he would come into the world. These same battles are meant and described time after time in the historical narratives of our Word - in Joshua’s battles against the nations of the land of Canaan, for example, and in the wars of the judges and the kings of Israel.

[2] Moses quoted the following from the prophetic portions of that Word:

Therefore those who make pronouncements say, “Come to Heshbon! The city of Sihon will be built up and fortified, because fire has gone out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, those who occupy the heights of Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, people of Chemosh; he has made his sons fugitives and sent his daughters into captivity to Sihon, king of the Amorites. With arrows we have dealt with them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon, and we have spread destruction as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba.” (Numbers 21:27-30)

Translators change [the title of] this to “Composers of Proverbs, ” but it should be called “Makers of Pronouncements” or “Prophetic Pronouncements, ” as we can tell from the meaning of the word moschalim in Hebrew. It means not only proverbs but also prophetic utterances, as in Numbers 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15 where it says that Balaam gave forth his pronouncement, which was actually a prophetic utterance and was about the Lord. In these instances each of his pronouncements is called a mashal in the singular. There is also the fact that what Moses quoted from this source are not proverbs but prophecies.

[3] We can see that this Word was similarly divine or divinely inspired from a passage in Jeremiah where we find almost the same words:

A fire has gone out from Heshbon and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which has devoured the corner of Moab and the top of the children of tumult. Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons have been carried off into captivity and your daughters into captivity. (Jeremiah 48:45-46)

Further, both David and Joshua mention another prophetic book of the former Word, The Book of Jasher or The Book of the Righteous One. Here is where David mentions it:

David lamented over Saul and over Jonathan and wrote, “‘To Teach the Children of Judah the Bow.’ (You will find this written in The Book of Jasher.)” (2 Samuel 1:17-18)

Here is where Joshua mentions it:

Joshua said, “‘Come to rest, O sun, in Gibeon; and, O moon, in the valley of Aijalon.’ Is this not written in The Book of Jasher?” (Joshua 10:12-13)

Then too, I have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis are right there in that ancient Word, so that not the slightest word is missing.

139. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

Of Conscience.

They who have no conscience, do not know what conscience is (n. 7490, 9121). There are some who laugh at conscience, when they hear what it is (n. 721). Some believe that conscience is nothing; some that it is a sad, doleful, natural something, arising from bodily or worldly causes; and some that it is an effect of religion on the minds of the common people (n. 950). Some know not that they have conscience, when yet they have it (n. 2380).

The good have conscience, but not the evil (n. 831, 965, 7490). They who are in love to God and in love towards the neighbor have conscience (n. 2380). Conscience is especially with those who are regenerated by the Lord (n. 977). They who are in truths alone, and not in a life according to them, have no conscience (n. 1076-1077, 1919). They who do good from natural good, and not from religion, have no conscience (n. 6208).

Man's conscience is from the doctrine of his church, or from some religious principle, and is according thereto (n. 9112). Conscience is formed with man from those things which are of his religion, and which he believes to be truths (n. 1077, 2053, 9113). Conscience is an internal bond, by which man is held to thinking, speaking, and doing good; and by which he is withheld from thinking, speaking, and doing evil; and this is not for the sake of self and the world, but for the sake of good, truth, justice, and uprightness (n. 1919, 9120). Conscience is an internal dictate, that one ought to do so or not so (n. 1919, 1935). Conscience is in its essence a conscience of what is true and right (n. 986, 8081). The new will with the spiritual regenerate man is conscience (n. 927, 1023, 1043-1044, 4299, 4328, 4493, 9115, 9596). The spiritual life of man is from conscience (n. 9117).

There is a true conscience, a spurious conscience, and a false conscience, concerning which (n. 1033). Conscience is more true, in proportion as it is formed from more genuine truths (n. 2053, 2063, 9114). In general, conscience is two-fold, interior and exterior, and interior conscience is of spiritual good, which in its essence is truth, and exterior conscience is of moral and civil good, which in its essence is sincerity and justice, in general, uprightness (n. 5140, 6207, 10296).

Pain of conscience is anxiety of mind on account of injustice, insincerity, and any evil, which a man believes to be against God, and against the good of the neighbor (n. 7217). If anxiety is felt when a man thinks evil, it is from conscience (n. 5470). Pain of conscience is an anguish felt on account of the evil which man does, and also on account of the privation of good and truth (n. 7217). Since temptation is a combat of truth and falsity in the interiors of man, and since in temptations there is pain and anxiety, therefore no others are admitted into spiritual temptations, but those who have conscience (n. 847).

They who have conscience speak and act from the heart (n. 7935, 9114). They who have conscience do not swear in vain (n. 2842). They who have conscience are in interior blessedness when they do what is good and just according to conscience (n. 9118). They who have conscience in the world, have conscience in the other life, and are there amongst the happy (n. 965). The influx of heaven flows into conscience with man (n. 6207, 6213, 9122). The Lord rules the spiritual man by conscience, which is an internal bond (n. 1835, 1862). They who have conscience, have interior thought; but they who have no conscience, have only exterior thought (n. 1919, 1935). They who have conscience, think from the spiritual, but they who have no conscience, think only from the natural (n. 1820). They who have no conscience, are only external men (n. 4459). The Lord rules those who have no conscience by external bonds, which are all those things which are of the love of self and of the world, and which thence relate to the fear of the loss of reputation, honor, office, gain, wealth, and the fear of the law, and of the loss of life (n. 1077, 1080, 1835). They who have no conscience, and yet suffer themselves to be ruled by these external bonds, are capable of discharging the duties of high offices in the world, and of doing good, as well as those who have conscience; but the former do it in an external form, and from external bonds, whereas the latter do it in an internal form, and from internal bonds (n. 6207).

They who have no conscience would destroy conscience with those who have it (n. 1820). They who have no conscience in the world, have no conscience in the other life (n. 965, 9122). Hence those who are in hell have no torment of conscience for their evils in the world (n. 965, 9122).

Who and of what quality, and how troublesome, the scrupulously conscientious are, and what they correspond to in the spiritual world (n. 5386, 5724).

They who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, have conscience, and it is formed in their intellectual part (n. 863, 865, 875, 895, 927, 1043-1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113, 6367, 8521, 9596, 9915, 9995, 10124). It is otherwise with those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom (n. 927, 2256, 5113, 6367, 8521, 9915, 9995, 10124).