1094. And the earth was lightened with his glory.- That this signifies the church now in light from the influx and reception of Divine Truth, is evident from the signification of the earth, as denoting the church, of which we have frequently spoken; and from the signification of being lightened, as denoting to be in light; and from the signification of glory, is here said of the Lord, who is meant there by the angel, as denoting Divine Truth (concerning which see n. 33, 288, 345, 874). That the Divine Truth is denoted by glory, because it is the light of heaven from which the angels derive all their wisdom and happiness, and also their magnificence, may be seen above (n. 678).

It is said of the angel coming down out of heaven, that he had great power, and that the earth was lightened with his glory because the Last Judgment was accomplished upon those meant by the harlot, or Babylon, this being the meaning of the words of the angel: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and is become a habitation of demons and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird" (verse 2). And when judgment was accomplished upon them, then the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord came into its light and into its power; for as long as the Babylonians were tolerated under heaven, they were like dense and dusky clouds between heaven and the earth which intercept the rays of light from the sun, and obscure the day. The reason was that they not only falsified, but also rejected the Divine Truth, that is the Word, and also destroyed the Lord's Divine Power by transferring it to themselves. As long as they were permitted to make habitations for themselves under the heavens, these and several other things were like dusky clouds between heaven and earth, through which the Divine Truth could not pass and enlighten any man of the Church. But as soon as they had been driven away and cast into hell, then the Divine truth which proceeded from the Lord as a Sun, increased in power and light to such a degree that the Lord could not only more powerfully lead, and more clearly enlighten, the spirits under the heavens, but also men in the Church. This is the reason why the spiritual sense of the Word was not revealed before, nor the state of heaven and hell manifested until the Last Judgment was accomplished, for previous to this, the Divine Truth would not have had power and light.

[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed.- Since a man at his birth, is not in any society either heavenly or infernal, being without thought, and yet is born for eternal life, it follows that, in course of time, he opens either heaven or hell to himself, enters into societies, and becomes an inhabitant either of heaven or of hell, even while he is in the world. The reason why a man becomes an inhabitant there is, that his real dwelling place, and country, as it is called, is in the spiritual world; after he has dwelt a few years in the natural world, he will live there for ever. It may be inferred, from these things, how necessary it is for a man to know, what it is that opens heaven in him, and introduces him into its societies; also, what it is that opens hell in him, and introduces him into its societies. This will be shown in the sections appended to the following articles. We will merely state here that a man introduces himself successively into more and more societies of heaven, according to the increase of wisdom, and successively into more and more interior societies, according to the increase of the love of good; again, so far as heaven is opened to him, so far hell is closed; but it is man himself that opens hell to himself, for heaven is opened to man by the Lord.

4964. 'Was made to go down to Egypt' means to factual knowledge which the Church possessed. This is clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as knowledge, or factual knowledge in general, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462. But no explanation of the essential nature of that factual knowledge properly meant by 'Egypt' has been provided as yet. In the Ancient Church there was doctrinal knowledge and there was factual knowledge. Doctrinal knowledge had regard to love to God and charity towards the neighbour, whereas factual knowledge had to do with the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual world, and with the representations of spiritual and heavenly realities within natural and earthly ones. Such was the factual knowledge of those in the Ancient Church.

[2] Egypt was one of those parts of the world and one of those kingdoms where the Ancient Church also existed, 1138, 1385; but since in that land mainly factual knowledge was handed down from one generation to another, 'Egypt' means factual knowledge in general. This also explains why frequent reference is made to Egypt in the prophetical part of the Word, where that knowledge is meant specifically by 'Egypt'. What is more, the actual magic practised by the Egyptians had its origin in the same knowledge; for they were acquainted with the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual, and at a later time, after the Church among them had come to an end, they misused these in magical practices. Now because such factual knowledge existed among them - that is to say, knowledge which taught correspondences, and also representatives and meaningful signs - and because this factual knowledge was the servant of the doctrinal teachings of the Church, especially in their understanding of things stated in their Word (for the Word of the Ancient Church was both prophetical and historical, like the Word that exists today, though this is a different Word, see 2686) 'he was made to go down to Egypt' consequently means made to go down to the factual knowledge which the Church possessed.

[3] Because the Lord is represented by 'Joseph' and the words 'Joseph was made to go down to Egypt' are used here, the meaning is that when the Lord was to glorify His Internal Man, that is, make it Divine, He first of all assimilated the factual knowledge possessed by the Church. Then, starting from and using that knowledge He advanced towards things increasingly interior and at length even to those that were Divine. For it pleased Him to glorify or make Himself Divine in conformity with the same kind of order as that by which He regenerates the human being or makes him spiritual, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402. That is to say, there is a gradual advance from external ideas, which are known facts and the truths of faith, towards internal ones, which are ideas of charity towards the neighbour and of love to Him. From this one may see what is meant by the following words in Hosea,

When Israel was a boy I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. Hosea 11:1.

These words refer to the Lord, see Matthew 2:15.