132. To this I will append two narrative accounts. Here is the first:

I was once speaking with two angels. One was from an eastern heaven, the other from a heaven in the south. When they perceived that I was pondering secrets of wisdom relating to conjugial love, they said, "Do you know about schools of wisdom in our world?"

I replied that I did not yet.

They said, "There are many." And they described how people who love truths with a spiritual affection, or who love them because they are true and because wisdom is gained by means of them, at a specified signal come together to discuss and draw conclusions on matters requiring a deeper understanding.

Then they took me by the hand, saying, "Follow us and you will see and hear for yourself. The signal has been given for a meeting today."

I was taken through a flat stretch of country to a hill, and behold, at the foot of the hill was an avenue of palm trees that extended all the way up to the top. We entered the avenue and ascended. At the top or apex of the hill we then saw a grove whose trees grew round about on a rise of ground and formed a kind of theater, with a level area in the middle covered with variously colored stones. Chairs had been placed around this space in the shape of a square, where the lovers of wisdom were already seated. Moreover, in the center of the theater stood a table, on which a piece of paper had been placed, sealed with a seal.

[2] The people sitting on the chairs invited us to seats that were still empty. But I replied, "I was brought here by the two angels to observe and listen, not to participate."

The two angels then went to the table in the middle of the level area; and undoing the seal on the piece of paper, they stood before the people seated and read them the secrets of wisdom written on the paper, which the people were now to discuss and explain. (The topics had been written by angels of the third heaven and sent down to their place on the table.)

There were three secrets to be explained. First, what the image of God is and the likeness of God into which man was created. Secondly, why man does not come by birth into the knowledge necessary to any love, whereas both higher and lower animals and birds come by birth into the kinds of knowledge necessary to all their loves. Thirdly, what the tree of life symbolizes and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what eating from them means.

Underneath, the added instruction had been written, "Combine the three explanations into a single statement and write it on a new piece of paper, then place it back on the table and we will look at it. If the statement seems balanced and accurate, each of you will be given an award for wisdom."

After they read this, the two angels withdrew and were taken up into their respective heavens.

[3] Then the people sitting on the chairs began to discuss and explain the secrets of the questions put before them, speaking in turn, beginning with those who sat towards the north, then those towards the west, afterwards those towards the south, and finally those towards the east. They started by taking up the first topic for discussion, namely, what the image of God is and the likeness of God into which man was created. First of all, they had the following verses read aloud from the book of creation for everyone to hear:

...God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him. (Genesis 1:26-27)

In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. (Genesis 5:1)

The people who were sitting towards the north spoke first, saying that the image of God and the likeness of God are two kinds of life breathed into man by God, these being the life of the will and the life of the understanding. For we read, they said, the following statement:

...Jehovah God...breathed into (Adam's) nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7)

"Into the nostrils," they said, "means into a perception that a will of good and an understanding of truth were in him, and thus that he had 'the breath of lives.' And because life was breathed into him by God, the image and likeness of God symbolize integrity resulting from wisdom and love and from righteousness and judgment in him."

Those who were sitting towards the west expressed agreement with this view, only adding that that state of integrity inspired by God into the first man is continually being breathed into every person after him, but that it exists in a person as though in a recipient vessel, and a person is therefore an image and likeness of God to the extent that he is such a recipient vessel.

[4] Next, the people third in order, who were those who were sitting towards the south, said, "The image of God and the likeness of God are two distinct things, but they were united in man at his creation. Moreover, from a kind of inner light we see that the image of God can be destroyed by a person, but not the likeness of God. This appears by inference from the suggestion that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God, for we read, after the curse, this statement:

'Behold, the man is like one of us, knowing good and evil.' (Genesis 3:22)

And later he is called a likeness of God, and not an image of God (Genesis 5:1).

"But let us leave it for our colleagues who are sitting towards the east and who are therefore in a higher light to say precisely what the image of God is, and what the likeness of God is."

[5] So then, after waiting for silence, the people sitting towards the east rose from their chairs and looked up to the Lord. And when they had taken their seats again, they said that the image of God is the capacity to receive God, and because God is love itself and wisdom itself, the image of God in a person is the capacity to receive love and wisdom from God.

On the other hand, the likeness of God, they said, is the perfect semblance and complete appearance that love and wisdom are in a person, and this entirely as though they belonged to him. "For a person has no other sensation than that he feels love on his own and becomes wise on his own, or that he wills good and understands truth by himself, even though not the least bit of it originates from him but from God. God alone loves from within Himself and is wise from within Himself, because God alone is love itself and wisdom itself.

"Love and wisdom, or good and truth, seem to be in a person as though they belonged to him, because this semblance or appearance makes him a human being and causes him to be capable of being conjoined with God and so of living to eternity. It follows from this that a person is a human being as a result of his ability to will good and understand truth entirely as though on his own, and yet to know and believe that he does so from God. For God sets His image in a person to the extent that he knows and believes this. It would be different if he were to believe that he had that ability from himself and not from God."

[6] As the speakers said this, a zeal came over them from their love of truth, prompting them to continue.

"How," they went on, "can a person receive any measure of love and wisdom so as to be able to retain it and reproduce it, unless he feels it as belonging to him? And how can there be any conjunction with God by means of love and wisdom unless man has been given some way of reciprocating necessary for conjunction? For no conjunction is possible without reciprocation. The reciprocation required for conjunction is a person's loving God and being wise in matters relating to God as though on his own, and yet believing that it is from God. Furthermore, unless a person has been conjoined to the eternal God, how is it possible for him to live to eternity? Consequently, how can a person be a human being without having that likeness of God in him?"

[7] On hearing this explanation, the rest all expressed their agreement, and they proposed that a conclusion be drawn on the basis of it, formulated in the following statement:

"Man is a vessel recipient of God," they said, "and a vessel recipient of God is an image of God. Since God is love itself and wisdom itself, man is a vessel recipient of these. And as a recipient vessel, a person becomes an image of God to the extent that he receives.

"Moreover, man is a likeness of God because of his sensing in himself that the things he has from God are in him as though they belonged to him. But still, a person is an image of God as a result of that likeness only in the measure that he acknowledges that the love and wisdom or good and truth in him are not his and so do not originate from him, but are God's alone and so originate from God."

6435. 'Even as far as the desire of the everlasting hills' means as far as celestial mutual love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the everlasting hills' as aspects of mutual love, dealt with below; for the vision that the spiritual Church may arrive at that love is meant by 'even as far as the desire of the everlasting hills'. Before other places in the Word are introduced to show that mutual love is meant by 'the everlasting hills' something must be said first about what one means by mutual love, a goal which the member of the spiritual Church represented by 'Joseph' has more than enough to do to reach. What has often been stated and shown already shows that there are two kingdoms constituting heaven - the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom. The difference between those two kingdoms is that the internal good of the celestial kingdom is the good of love to the Lord, while its external good is the good of mutual love. Members of that kingdom are governed by the good of love, not by truth that is called the truth of faith; for such truth is so integrated into the good of that kingdom that it cannot be seen in isolation from good. This being so, members of that kingdom cannot even utter the word faith, 202, 103, 4448; for with them the good of mutual love stands in place of the truth of faith. But in the spiritual kingdom the good of charity towards the neighbour constitutes the internal aspect of it and the truth of faith the external aspect.

[2] From all this one may see what the difference is between the two kingdoms, and also that they meet each other, in that the external aspect of the celestial kingdom coincides with the internal of the spiritual kingdom through an intermediary called the celestial of the spiritual. For as stated above, the external of the celestial kingdom is the good of mutual love, and the internal of the spiritual kingdom is the good of charity towards the neighbour. But the good of mutual love is more internal than the good of charity towards the neighbour, because the former springs from the rational, the latter from the natural. But although the good of mutual love, which is the external of the celestial Church, is more internal, while the good of charity towards the neighbour is more external, the Lord nevertheless joins the two kinds of good together through, as has just been stated, an intermediary, and in that way joins the two kingdoms together.

[3] To distinguish between the external good of the celestial Church and the internal good of the spiritual Church, let the former kind of good be called in what follows below the good of mutual love and let the latter kind be called the good of charity towards the neighbour - a difference that has not been observed in previous sections. Once these things are known, what is meant by 'even as far as the desire of the everlasting hills', one of Israel's blessings regarding this spiritual Church, can be stated, which is the vision that the spiritual kingdom may rise above the good of charity and reach even as far as the good of mutual love which belongs to the celestial kingdom, and thus the two kingdoms may be joined together at a very deep level. These are the things that are meant by those words.

[4] Very many places in the prophetical part of the Word mention mountains and hills, by which forms of the good of love are meant in the internal sense. 'Mountains' means the good of love to the Lord, which is the internal of the celestial kingdom, while 'hills' means the good of mutual love, which is the external of the same kingdom. But when the spiritual kingdom is the subject 'mountains' means the good of charity towards the neighbour, which is the internal of that kingdom, while 'hills' means the truth of faith, which is its external. It should be recognized that every one of the Lord's Churches is internal and external; and so too are both His kingdoms.

[5] This meaning of 'hills' becomes clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

In the latter days it will be, that the mountain of Jehovah will be on the top of the mountains, and raised above the hills. Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1.

'The mountain of Jehovah', which is Zion, stands for the Lord's celestial kingdom, thus for the good of that kingdom, which is the good of love to the Lord, and so in the highest sense is the Lord Himself since all love and all good in the celestial kingdom are the Lord's.

[6] 'Mount Zion' has the same meaning in other places in the Word; and by 'its hill' is meant the good of mutual love, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah Zebaoth will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Isaiah 31:4.

Here 'hill' stands for the good of mutual love; and since 'hill' means the good of mutual love, and 'mountain' the good of celestial love, which is that of love to the Lord, it says 'Jehovah will come down to fight on that mountain'. Jehovah does not fight actually on Mount Zion and its hill; rather, where the good of love exists, that is what the Lord, meant here by Jehovah, fights for, that is, He fights for those with whom that good exists. If He ever did fight for Zion and Jerusalem, it was because they represented the celestial Church. This also explains why Mount Zion was called holy, and so also why Jerusalem was termed holy, when in fact it was unclean, as is evident in the Prophets where its abominations are referred to.

[7] In David,

The mountains will bring peace, and the hills, in righteousness. Psalms 72:3.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, mountains and all hills. Psalms 148:9.

In the same author,

The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. ¹ Psalms 104:4, 6.

In the same author,

A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of hills is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you leap up, O mountains, hills of mountains? God desires to inhabit it; yes, Jehovah will inhabit it perpetually. Psalms 68:15-16.

In these places 'mountains' stands for celestial love, and 'hills' for spiritual love. Mountains are obviously not what is meant, nor hills, nor even those who were on mountains and hills.

[8] In Isaiah,

It will be that on every high mountain, and on every lofty hill, there will be brooks, streams of water. Isaiah 30:25.

'Streams of water' stands for cognitions of good and truth, which are said to be 'on every high mountain, and on every lofty hill', for those cognitions flow from forms of the good of celestial and spiritual love.

[9] In Habakkuk,

Jehovah stood and measured the earth; He looked and scattered the nations, because the eternal mountains were dissolved, the everlasting hills sank down. Habakkuk 3:6.

'The eternal mountains' stands for the good of love that existed with the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, and 'the everlasting hills' for the good of mutual love that existed with that Church - the former good being its internal, the latter its external. When that Church is what is meant in the Word, there is frequently added, because it was the Most Ancient Church, the word 'eternal', as in the expression 'the eternal mountains' used here, and in the expression 'eternal days' or 'days of eternity' used elsewhere, 6239. Also added was the word 'everlasting', as in the expression 'the everlasting hills' used here, as well as 'as far as the desire of the everlasting hills' appearing in Israel's prophetic utterances. From this one may see that 'the everlasting hills' means forms of the good of mutual love belonging to the celestial Church or the Lord's celestial kingdom.

[10] Something similar occurs in Moses' prophetic utterance concerning Joseph,

. . . in regard to the first fruits of the mountains of the east, and to the precious things of the eternal hills . . . Let them come upon the head of Joseph. Deuteronomy 33:15-16.

In Isaiah,

The mountains and the hills will resound with song, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12.

In Joel,

On that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will flow with water. Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13.

In Ezekiel,

My sheep wander in all the mountains and on every high hill, and over all the face of the earth they were dispersed. I will give them and the places around My hill a blessing, and I will send down the rain in its season. Ezekiel 34:6, 26.

In Jeremiah,

On all the hills in the wilderness those who cause devastation have come, for the sword of Jehovah is devouring. Jeremiah 11:12.

In these places forms of the good of celestial love are meant by 'the mountains', and much the same, but in a lower degree, by 'the hills'.

[11] Because mountains and hills were signs that meant things such as these, Divine worship as well took place in the Ancient Church on mountains and hills. And later still the Hebrew nation set up altars on mountains and hills, offering sacrifice and incense there; or where there were no hills they built high places. But that worship became idolatrous, owing to the fact that they considered the actual mountains and hills to be holy and gave no thought at all to the holy things that they were signs of; and because that worship had become idolatrous the Israelite and Jewish people were forbidden to practise it, for those people were extremely prone, more than all others, to engage in idolatrous worship. But so as to retain that representative feature of mountains and hills which had existed in ancient times, Mount Zion was selected, which in the highest sense represented the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love, and in the relative sense the Divine Celestial and Divine Spiritual in His kingdom.

[12] Since mountains and hills were signs meaning such things, Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son on one of the mountains in the land of Moriah. it was also on a mountain that the Lord appeared to Moses, and from upon a mountain that the Law was proclaimed; for He appeared to Moses on Mount Horeb, and the Law was proclaimed on Mount Sinai. And in addition the temple in Jerusalem was built on a mountain.

[13] The fact that it was an age-old religious practice that led those people to celebrate sacred worship on mountains and hills, and that subsequently led the gentiles, also idolatrous Israelites and Jews, to offer sacrifice and incense on them, is evident in Jeremiah,

Your adulterous acts and your neighings, the wickedness of your whoredom committed on the hills, in the field - I have seen your abominations. Jeremiah 13:27.

This refers to Jerusalem. In Ezekiel,

When their slain will be in the midst of their idols, around their altars on every high hill, on all the mountain tops, and under every green tree, and under every entangled oak. Ezekiel 6:13.

In Jeremiah,

On every high hill, and under every green tree, you are a sinful prostitute. Jeremiah 2:20; 3:6.

And there are other places besides these - 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 16:4; 17:10.

[14] Because idolatrous worship was performed on mountains and hills, the evils of self-love are meant by them in the contrary sense, as in Jeremiah,

[I saw] the mountains; and behold, they are shaken, and all the hills are overturned. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and every bird of the air had flown away. Jeremiah 4:24-25.

In Isaiah,

Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low. Isaiah 40:4.

In the same prophet,

Behold, I have made you into a new threshing-sledge ² provided with sharp points. You are to thresh the mountains and crush them, and you are to make the hills like chaff. Isaiah 41:15.

In the same prophet,

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up every plant on them. Isaiah 42:15.

In Micah,

Hear now what Jehovah is saying, Arise, contend with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Micah 6:1.

In Jeremiah,

Lost sheep have My people been, their shepherds have led them astray, O rebellious mountains. They have gone from mountain onto hill, they have forgotten their resting-place. ³ Jeremiah 50:6.

And there are other places besides these, such as Jeremiah 16:16; Nahum 1:5-6.

[15] The reason why 'mountains and hills meant forms of the good of celestial and spiritual love was that they were places that rose up above the earth, and places that rose up high meant things belonging to heaven, and in the highest sense those belonging to the Lord. For 'the land of Canaan' meant the Lord's heavenly kingdom, 1607, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4240, 4447; consequently everything in that land had a spiritual meaning, its mountains and hills meaning the kinds of things that are 'high'. For when the most ancient people, who belonged to the celestial Church, went up a mountain, the idea of height came to mind, and from height the idea of what was holy, for the reason that Jehovah or the Lord was said to live in the most high places, and also for the reason that 'height' in the spiritual sense was the good of love, 650.

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