The Bible

 

Matthew 6:32

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32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1080

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1080. These shall hate the whore. That this signifies the total rejection of the dogmas by which the Papal Consistory has falsified the truths, and adulterated the goods of the Word, and thus profaned the holy things of the church, is evident from the signification of hating, as denoting to reject altogether; and from the signification of the whore, as denoting Babylon, which is called a whore from the falsification and adulteration of the Word, and the consequent profanation of the holy things of the church. That such things are signified by whores, and whoredoms, in the Word, may be seen (n. 141, 817, 881, 1032). [By those who hate the whore], are meant the Reformed, who have entirely rejected the dogmas that have proceeded from the Papal Consistory; these because they had for an end the increase of dominion, and not the salvation of men, could not but be against the truths and goods of the Word, and therefore falsify and adulterate them.

Continuation concerning the Word:-

[2] It was said that in every heaven there is a Word, and that these Words, in their order, are contained in our Word, and that they thus make one by influx, and thence by correspondences. Here, therefore, it shall be explained what correspondence and also influx are, otherwise it cannot be comprehended what the quality of the Word is, thus as to its life from the Lord, which is its soul. But what correspondence and influx are shall be illustrated by examples.

The variations of the face, called the features, correspond to the affections of the mind, therefore the face is varied as to its features just as the affections of the mind as to their states. These variations in the face are correspondences, consequently, also the face itself; and the action of the mind into it, in order that the correspondences may be made evident, is called influx. The sight of a man's thought, which is called the understanding, corresponds to the sight of his eyes; wherefore also from the light and flame of the eyes the quality of the thought from the understanding is evident. The sight of the eye is a correspondence, consequently, the eye itself; the action of the understanding into the eye, whereby the correspondence is made evident, is influx. The active thought of the understanding corresponds to the utterance of the mouth. Speech is correspondence, also the mouth and everything belonging to it; and the action of thought into speech, and into the organs of speech, is influx. The perception of the mind corresponds to the smell of the nostrils. The smell and the nostrils are correspondences, and the action is influx. This is why a man who has an interior perception is said to be of an acute nostril; and to perceive a thing is called to scent it. Hearkening, which denotes obedience, corresponds to the hearing of the ears. Therefore both the hearing and the ears are correspondences; and the action of obedience into the hearing, so that a man erects the ears and attends, is influx. Hence hearkening and hearing are both significative. To hearken and to give ear to any one denotes to obey; and to hearken to and hear any one denotes to hear with the ears. The action of the body corresponds to the will. The action of the heart corresponds to the life of the love. The action of the lungs, which is called respiration, corresponds to the life of faith. And the whole body as to all its members, viscera, and organs corresponds to the soul, as to all the functions and powers of its life.

[3] From these few things it may be seen what correspondence and influx are; and that while the spiritual, which is the life of a man's understanding and will, flows into the acts of his body, and is portrayed naturally, there is correspondence; and that thus the spiritual and the natural, by correspondences, act as one, like interior and exterior, or like prior and posterior, or like the efficient cause and the effect, or like the principal cause, a man's thought and will, and the instrumental cause, his speech and action.

Such a correspondence of natural and spiritual things exists not only in all and everything pertaining to man, but also in all and everything in the world; and the correspondences are made evident by the influx of the spiritual world and all things of it into the natural world and all things of it. From these things it may in some small degree be seen how our Word, as to the literal sense, which is natural, makes one, by influx and correspondences, with the Words in the heavens, whose senses are spiritual.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.