19. 'The Spirit of God' is used to mean the Lord's mercy, which is said 'to hover', like a hen over eggs, over what the Lord stores away in man and which in the Word are frequently called 'remnants'. These remnants are cognitions of truth and good which never come to light or into daylight until external things have been laid waste. These cognitions are here called 'the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

7987. 'Even on this same day it was' means that it was at that very time. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 7680. 'On this same day' consequently means in that state, and so at that very time, that is to say, when the Lord's Coming took place, meant by 'at the end of the four hundred and thirty years', and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church, meant by 'all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt'.