Arcana Coelestia #57
57. 'The plant yielding seed' is every truth that looks towards a use. 'The tree in which there is fruit' is the good that accompanies faith. 'Fruit' is what the Lord gives to the celestial man, while 'seed', the source of the fruit, is what He gives to the spiritual man. This is why it is said that 'the tree producing seed will be for you for food'. That celestial food is called 'fruit from a tree' is clear from the next chapter where the subject is the celestial man. Here let just that be mentioned which the Lord spoke through Ezekiel,
Beside the river there is rising up upon its bank, on this side and on that, every tree for food. Its leaf will not fall nor its fruit fail. It is re-born monthly, for its waters flow out from the Sanctuary, and its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for medicine. Ezekiel 47:12.
'Waters from the Sanctuary' means the life and mercy of the Lord, who is the Sanctuary; 'fruit' means wisdom, which is food for them; 'leaf' is intelligence, which is given them for a use, which is called 'medicine'. Spiritual food however is called 'a plant', as stated through David,
[Jehovah is] my Shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me 1 lie down in green pastures. 2 Psalms 23:1-2.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin means You makest me; but the Hebrew means He makes me or, as Swedenborg renders in other places where he quotes this verse, He will make me.
2. literally, pastures of the plant
Arcana Coelestia #4332
4332. The preliminary section of the previous chapter explained what the Lord foretold in Matthew 24:32-35 about His coming, by which was meant, as was shown there and in previous preliminary sections to chapters, the final period or end of the former Church and the first period or beginning of the new Church - see the preliminary section to Chapter 31, in 4056-4060, and the preliminary section to Chapter 32, in 4229-4231. To be explained next are the words which follow in Verses 36-41 of the same chapter in that gospel, which are these,
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as they were in the days before the Flood - eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage - up to the day on which Noah entered the ark (and they were unaware of anything until the flood came and took them all away) so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. At that time two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left behind. Two women grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left behind.
