The Bible

 

Genesis 1:10

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10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8

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8. The second state is when a distinction is made between the things that are the Lord's and those that are man's own. Those which are the Lord's are called in the Word 'remnants', and here they are chiefly the cognitions of faith which a person has learned since he was a small child. These are stored away and do not come out into the open until he reaches this state. Nowadays this state rarely occurs without temptation, misfortune, and sorrow, which lead to the inactivity and so to speak the death of bodily and worldly concerns - the things which are man's own. In this way what belongs to the external man is segregated from what belongs to the internal. Within the internal are the remnants, stored away by the Lord until this time and for this purpose.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4906

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4906. 'Bring her out, and let her be burnt' means that it - that is to say, the internal aspect of the Church which Tamar represented - should be exterminated. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing her out, and burning her' as exterminating, 'bringing out' having reference to the truth and 'burning' to the good which were to be exterminated. The use of 'burning' in reference to the extermination of good is clear from many places in the Word. The reason for the usage is that in the spiritual sense 'fire' and 'flame' mean good, 934, and the heat radiated from them the affection for good, while 'fire' and 'flame' in the contrary sense mean evil, and the heat radiated from these the affection for evil, 1297, 1861, 2446. Also, in actual fact good is spiritual fire from which spiritual heat which is life-giving is radiated; and evil too is a fire, but from this a heat which is a consuming one is radiated. Anyone who turns his attention to this matter and reflects on it can plainly see that the good of love is spiritual fire, and that the affection for that good is spiritual heat if he reflects on the question where do man's vital fire and heat come from, he will discover that love is the source of it; for as soon as love departs a person begins to grow cold, but as love increases in him he becomes warmer. Unless man's vital fire and heat came from that source he could not possibly have life at all. But this life-bringing fire or spiritual heat becomes among the evil a destroying and consuming fire, for in their case it is converted into this kind of fire. Among living creatures which do not possess reason spiritual heat likewise flows in and brings life, but life which is varied, depending on the ways in which their organic forms, and therefore their knowledge and innate affections receive that life, as with bees and all other creatures.

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