Canons of the New Church #44
44. CHAPTER VII
6. 1 What its quality is, is depicted by the image Nebuchadnezzar saw, in respect of its feet, also by the last beast coming up out of the sea, in Daniel [7], and by the dragon and its two beasts, in the Revelation [12, 13].
7. Its quality is manifest moreover from the following arcanum that was revealed to me: Everyone is allotted a place in heaven, i.e. a place in the societies of heaven, in accordance with his idea of God; and everyone in the hells, in accordance with his denial of God; and further, within the ideas of those who have confirmed themselves in the Nicene 2 Trinity, there is present a denial of one God.
8. A true soul and life is in the man of the Church who acknowledges the Lord, the Son of God, as the God of heaven and earth. That He is God of heaven and earth, He Himself teaches in Matthew 28 [18]. That He is the True God and Eternal Life, is in John [1 John 5:20]. That in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, is according to Paul [Col. 2:9]; and that He is Jehovah, our Redeemer, the only God, indeed the Father of Eternity, is according to Isaiah.
Footnotes:
1. From the "Index of General Subjects" it appears very probable that chapter VI dealt with "Discordant Ideas derived from the Nicene Trinity", and chapter VII explained how that Trinity had perverted the Church. In the Skara Manuscript, these three paragraphs are attached to the preceding chapter, and numbered 8, 9, 10 respectively. Instead of "What its quality is", it reads, "What the state of the Church is, perverted by the Nicene Trinity and by the falsification of the Word". It omits from the beginning of the next paragraph the words before the colon.
2. So in the Skara Manuscript. The Nordenskjold manuscript has Apostolica scored out, and Athanasia added by another hand.
Arcana Coelestia #5297
5297. 'Food in the cities' means such things present in the interior parts of the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of 'food' as all things that have a useful purpose, dealt with just above in 5293; and from the meaning of 'cities' as the interior parts of the natural mind. In the universal sense 'cities' means matters of doctrine known to the Church, see 402, 2268, 2449, 2451, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4491, 4493, but in a particular sense it means the interior parts of a person where matters of doctrine exist, or rather where truths joined to good exist. For the forms of truth and good existing with a person form a city so to speak, see 3584, which is why a person who has the Church within him is called 'the city of God'. The meaning that 'a city' has is similar to the meaning that 'a house' has. In a universal sense 'a house' means good; in a particular sense however it means a person, 3128, and in a specific sense it means his mind so far as goodness and truth are joined together there, 3538, 4973, 5023. Also a house with its rooms, surrounding buildings, and courtyards is a city in miniature.
[2] The interior parts of the natural mind are meant by 'cities' in Isaiah,
On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak in the lips of Canaan and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth. Isaiah 19:18.
Both forms of good and of truth present in the interior parts are meant by 'cities' in the Lord's parable in Luke,
He said to the one who used his mina to earn ten minas, Well done, good servant; because you have been faithful over a little, be over ten cities. And he said to the second who earned five minas, You also, be over five cities. Luke 19:11 and following verses.
The recommendation here therefore that they should store up food in cities and should guard it means that truths joined to good were to be stored away in the interior parts of the natural mind. When these truths and forms of good have been stored away there they are called remnants. These remnants are where a person's actual spiritual life resides, and they are what a person is nourished by spiritually whenever need and desire, that is, whenever spiritual famine, arises.
