The Bible

 

Genesis 1:11

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11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #38

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38. Verse 18 And to have dominion over the day and the night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

'The day' is used to mean good, and 'the night' evil. Consequently goods are called 'the works of the day', whereas evils are called 'the works of the night'. 'The light' is used to mean truth, and 'the darkness' falsity, just as the Lord says,

Men preferred darkness rather than light; he who does the truth comes to the light. John 3:19-21.

Verse 19 And there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9282

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9282. 'And all that I have said to you you shall keep' means that they should carry out the commandments, judgements, and statutes. This is clear from the meaning of 'all that Jehovah said to them' as all laws of life, laws of worship, and laws of the civic state (laws of life are called 'commandments', those of worship are called 'statutes', and those of the civic state are called 'judgements', 8972); and from the meaning of 'keeping' or observing as carrying out, for when anyone carries them out they are observed. Since those laws of life, laws of worship, and laws of the civic state are not anything with a person as long as they are confined to his understanding, and are only something with him when they are present in his will, it is stated everywhere in the Word that they must be carried out, for carrying them out belongs to the will. But knowing, understanding, acknowledging, and believing belong to the understanding; yet they do not have any being with the person until they become part of his will, and there is no manifestation of them with him until they become part of an understanding rooted in the will. For having being consists in willing, and manifestation in acknowledging and believing as a result of willing. Things that have no such being or manifestation with a person are not properly his own. They stand outside, not as yet received into the house. So they make no contribution at all towards the person's eternal life. For such things if they have not become part of his life are dispelled in the next life; the only things to remain will be those which are in his heart, that is, in his will and from there in his understanding. This being so, it is stated everywhere in the Word that commandments and statutes must be carried out, as in Moses,

You shall carry out My judgements and keep My statutes, to go in them. Therefore you shall keep My statutes and My judgements, which if a person carries them out, he will live by them. Leviticus 18:4-5.

It is also stated in Matthew 5:19; 7:24-27; 16:27; John 3:21; and very many times elsewhere.

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