40. 'Creeping things which the waters bring forth' means facts which belong to the external man, while 'birds' generally means rational concepts and also intellectual concepts, of which the latter belong to the internal man. That creeping things from the waters, or fish, mean facts is clear in Isaiah,

I came, and there was no man. By My rebuke I will dry up the sea, I will make the rivers a desert. Their fish will stink because there is no water and will die of thirst. I will clothe the heavens with darkness. Isaiah 50:2-3.

[2] This is plainer still in Ezekiel where the Lord describes the new temple, or new Church in general, and the member of the Church, or person who has been regenerated, for every regenerate person is a temple of the Lord,

The Lord Jehovih ¹ said to me, Those waters which will go out to the boundary eastwards will come towards the sea, having been directed into the sea, and the waters will be fresh. And it will be that every living creature which swarms will live, wherever the water of the rivers reaches, and there will be very many fish, for these waters are going there and will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. And it will be that fishermen from En-gedi to En-eglaim will stand beside it, with nets spread out. Its fish according to their kinds will be very many, like the fish of the great sea. Ezekiel 47:8-10.

'Fishermen from En-gedi to En-eglaim with their nets stretched out' means people who are to teach the natural man about the truths of faith.

[3] In the Prophets 'birds' invariably means rational concepts and intellectual concepts, as in Isaiah,

Calling a bird of prey from the east, a man of My counsel from a distant land. Isaiah 46:11.

In Jeremiah,

I looked, and behold there was no man, and all the birds of the air ² had fled. Jeremiah 4:25.

In Ezekiel,

I will plant the sprig of a lofty cedar, and it will bring forth a branch, and bear fruit, and it will become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every bird of every sort, ³ in the shade of its branches they will dwell. Ezekiel 17:23.

And in Hosea, when the subject is a new Church, or regenerate person,

And I will make for them a covenant on that day, with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, ² and with things moving on the ground. Hosea 2:18.

Anyone may see that because the Lord 'is making a new covenant' with them, 'wild animal' is not used to mean a wild animal, nor 'bird' to mean a bird.

Footnotes:

1944. That 'behold, you are with child' means the life of the rational man is clear from what has been stated above about the conception of that man and from what follows regarding Ishmael, to the effect that the Lord's first rational is represented by him. With regard to the rational man in general it should be recognized that the rational is said to receive life, to be in the womb, and to be born, as soon as a person starts to think that within him evil and falsity are present which contradict and show opposition to truth and good, increasingly so when he wishes to remove and subdue such evil and falsity. Unless he is able to see and appreciate this, he does not have any rational, however much he imagines that he does. For the rational is the means which unites the internal man to the external, thereby perceiving from the Lord what is taking place in the external man. The rational also brings the external into a position of obedience - or rather raises it up from the bodily and worldly interests in which it immerses itself - and causes the person to be truly human, who as a result looks up to heaven where he belongs by birth, and not, as animals do, solely down to the earth, where he resides merely temporarily, and certainly not down to hell. These are the functions of the rational, and therefore unless a person is such that he is able to think in this manner, he cannot be said to have a rational. Whether the rational exists at all is recognizable from the life belonging to the use or function it performs.

[2] His reasoning against good and truth - which good and truth he denies in his heart, yet has heard of and therefore knows of - does not mean that he has a rational. Many are able to reason in the same way who without any compunction rush into every kind of wicked action, and who differ from others only in this respect, that those people who suppose they have a rational, but in fact do not, display a certain correctness in the things they say and a presence of honourableness in the things they do, and are held to these habits by means of external restraints, such as fear of the law, and of the loss of possessions, position, reputation, or life. If these restraints, which are external, were taken away, some of these people would behave even more insanely than those who have no compunction at all. Nobody therefore can be said to have a rational merely on account of an ability to reason. Indeed those who do not have a rational usually speak from sensory experience and factual knowledge with far greater skill than those who do have it.

[3] This is absolutely clear from evil spirits in the next life who, though they were considered to be the most rational of people during their lifetime, are nevertheless more insane than those who are obviously so in the world, when the external restraints which had been responsible for their correctness in the things they said and for the presence of honourableness in the things they did are removed, as such restraints usually are with all in the next life. Indeed they plunge without shame, fear, or horror into everything that is wicked. Not so when external restraints are removed in the case of people who were rational when they lived in the world; they are saner men still because they have internal restraints, which are the restraints of conscience, by which the Lord has kept their thoughts bound to the laws of truth and good, which constituted their rational concepts.