293. (Verse 11) Saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power. That this signifies merit and justice pertaining to the Divine Human of the Lord, and that from it is all Divine truth, Divine good and salvation, is evident from the signification of thou art worthy, O Lord, as being the merit and justice pertaining to the Lord's Divine Human, concerning which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of glory and honour, when said of the Lord, as being Divine truth and Divine good which are from Him (concerning which see above, n. 288); and from the signification of power as being salvation. The reason why power here signifies salvation is that all Divine power respects salvation as an end; for a man is reformed, and afterwards introduced into heaven, and is there withheld from evil and falsity and held in good and truth, from the Divine power; and this no one can do but the Lord alone. Those who claim that power to themselves, are entirely ignorant of what salvation means, for they do not know what reformation is, nor what constitutes heaven with man; and to claim to themselves the Lord's power, is to claim power over the Lord Himself, which power is called the power of darkness (Luke 22:53).

[2] That power, when said of the Lord, has chiefly respect to salvation, is evident from the following passages, as in John:

Jesus said, "Father thou hast given" to the Son "power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him" (17:2).

Again:

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (1:12).

Again:

"I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (15:5).

In Mark:

"They were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority" (1:22).

And in Luke:

"With authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits, and they come out" (4:36).

The same may be seen in many other passages.

The Lord also has power over all things, because He is God alone; but the salvation of the human race is the principal object of power, because for the sake of that the heavens and all worlds were created, and salvation is the reception of the Divine proceeding.

[3] The reason why by thou art worthy, O Lord, is signified the merit and justice which pertain to the Lord's Divine Human is that the words signify that He merited; and the merit of the Lord consists in the circumstance that when He was in the world He subjugated the hells and reduced to order all things in the heavens, and that He glorified His Human, and this from His own power, and thus saved all the human race who believe in Him, that is, who love to do His precepts (see John 1:12, 13). This merit is also called justice in the Word, and the Lord as to His Divine Human is thence called Jehovah our Justice (Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16). (Concerning this merit, or this justice of the Lord, more may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 293, 294; and in the references to Arcana Coelestia there, n. 300-306).

1860. That 'there was thick darkness' means when hatred existed in place of charity is clear from the meaning of 'thick darkness'. In the Word 'darkness' means falsities, while 'thick darkness' means evils, as explained immediately below. 'Darkness' is when falsity exists in place of truth, and 'thick darkness' when evil exists in place of good, or what amounts entirely to the same, when hatred exists in place of charity. When hatred exists in place of charity the darkness is so thick that the person is not even aware of its being an evil, let alone of its being so great an evil as to thrust him down in the next life into hell; indeed people who are steeped in hatred find a certain delight and so to speak life in it. This very delight and life have the effect that he hardly knows other than that hatred is good. Whatever favors a person's pleasure and desire, because it favors his love, he feels as good - so much so that when he is told it is of hell he can hardly believe it. Even less can he believe it when he is told that such delight and life is converted in the next life into an utterly foul and corpse-like stench. Even less still can he believe that he is becoming a devil and a dreadful replica of hell; for hell consists of nothing else than varieties of hatred and other such forms.

[2] But of this anyone may know who has any power of thought; for if he were to describe hatred, or to represent it, or to portray it if he were able to in any way, he would not do so except by the use of devil-like forms such as these persons steeped in evil also assume after death. And what is extraordinary, such people can still declare that in the next life they will go to heaven, in some cases for merely saying that they have faith - though in fact the only forms occurring in heaven are those of charity, the nature of which may be seen in what has been told from experience in 553. Let those people now consider how these two forms - of hatred and of charity - can be in agreement in the same place.

[3] That 'darkness' means falsity and 'thick darkness' evil becomes clear from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,

Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. Isaiah 60:2.

In Joel,

Let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble, for the day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Joel 2:1-2.

In Zephaniah,

A day of wrath is that day, a day of vastation and desolation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zephaniah 1:15.

In Amos,

Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, and thick darkness, and no brightness in it? Amos 5:20.

In these places 'the day of Jehovah' stands for the final period of the Church, which is also the subject here. 'Darkness' stands for falsities, 'thick darkness' for evils; hence both are mentioned. Otherwise there would be a repetition of the same thing, or a pointless excess of words. The term used in the original language however to express thick darkness in this verse embodies both within itself - falsity as well as evil, or gross falsity that produces evil, as well as gross evil that produces falsity.