32. Love and faith are first called 'the great lights', then love is called 'the greater light' and faith 'the lesser light'. In reference to love it is said that it will have dominion over the day, and in reference to faith that it will have dominion over the night. Because these are arcana and have become hidden, especially at this end of an epoch, in the Lord's Divine mercy let the whole subject be opened up. The reason they have become hidden, especially at this present end of an epoch, is that now is the close of the age, when love is almost non-existent, and consequently faith too, just as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospels with these words,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' is used to mean love, which is 'darkened', 'the moon' faith which does not give its light, 'the stars' cognitions of faith which fall from heaven, and which are the various 'powers of the heavens'. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself; celestial angels as well do not know what faith is except faith which stems from love. Love pervades the whole of heaven, for in the heavens no other life is found except the life that belongs to love. This is the source of all happiness in heaven, a happiness so great that no aspect of it can be described or in any way captured in human concepts. People in whom this love is present love the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet they realize, say, and perceive that all love, thus all life, which belongs exclusively to love, and so all happiness, come from the Lord and nowhere else, and that they derive not one trace of love, life, and happiness from themselves. The Lord's being the source of all love was again represented by the greater light, that is, the sun, at the Transfiguration, for His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. What is inmost is meant by His face, and what emanates from the inmost by His garments. Thus His Divinity is meant by the sun or love, and His Humanity by the light or wisdom coming from love.

4478. 'And they spoke to the men of the city, saying' means persuasion. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as willing and also as flowing in, dealt with in 2951, 3037. In this case persuading is meant because persuasion exists in one who wills something; and when anyone like this influences another he communicates his persuasion. Furthermore 'the men of the city' means those with whom the truths of doctrine are present, in this case truths like those with Shechem. For in ancient times a city was nothing other than one family belonging to a nation; the dwelling together of those who belonged to one family was called a city. And because in the internal sense it is not the family that is meant but the essential nature of that family so far as life and doctrine are concerned, 'city' means the truth of doctrine and 'inhabitants' the good of doctrine, see 402, 2268, 2449, 2451, 2712, 2943, 3216. But when the inhabitants of a city are referred to as 'the men of the city' it is not the good of doctrine that is meant but the truths of it; for in the Word 'men' means truths, 3134.