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.

2418. 'Do not halt in all the plain' means he was not to linger over any one of these. This is clear from the meaning of 'a plain' as every aspect of doctrine, dealt with immediately below. What not lingering over any one of them entails will be stated at verse 26, where Lot's wife is referred to as looking back behind him. That 'a plain' in the Word means all aspects of that doctrine is clear in Jeremiah,

He who lays waste will come to every city, and no city will escape; and the valley will perish, and the plain will be destroyed. Jeremiah 48:8.

'City' stands for false doctrinal teaching, 'the plain' for all aspects of that doctrine. In John,

When the thousand years have come to an end Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. They went up therefore over the whole plain of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints; but fire came down from God out of heaven and consumed them. Revelation 20:7-9.

Here 'Gog and Magog' stands for people whose worship was external devoid of internal and so had become idolatrous, 1151. 'The plain of the earth' stands for the Church's matters of doctrine which they lay waste, 'the camp of the saints' for goods that flow from love and charity. 'Consumed by fire from God out of heaven' is similar in meaning to that regarding the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, in verse 24. Also in Jeremiah 33:13 matters of doctrine regarding charity are called 'cities of the mountain' and matters of doctrine regarding faith 'cities of the plain'.