3388. 'For she was good-looking' means that it could be received without difficulty because of its being called Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'good-looking' as something which because of its form is pleasing and so is received without difficulty. The subject is those who possess matters of doctrine concerning faith but who do not have from good any perception of truth, only a conscience regarding what is true which consists simply of what their parents and teachers have told them. These are they who are called 'the men of the place (which is Gerar)', 3385, 3387. With these people the first stage in the confirmation of such truth is reached, in that it is called Divine, for now they immediately have a concept of that which is holy, and this contributes an overall confirmation to every single thing they are told even though they do not grasp it. Nevertheless what they are told must come within their ability to grasp those things. It is not enough for a person to know that something exists; he also wishes to know something about it, and the nature of it if any confirmation of it is to reach the understanding part of his mind, and come back from there. If that wish is not present something may indeed be introduced into the memory, but it remains there as no more than something dead, like a meaningless sound, and unless some confirmatory evidence from whatever source drives it home it slips away like the remembrance of something that merely made a sound.

2669. 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation' means the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the son of the servant-girl' and also of 'a nation'. 'The son of the servant-girl' or Ishmael, while he was in Abraham's house, that is, while he was with Abraham, represented the Lord's first rational, as shown in 2652, 2653, 2657, 2658. But now he has been separated he takes on another representation, namely that of the spiritual Church, 2666. A similar change of representation occurred previously with Lot who while with Abraham represented the Lord's external man, 1428, 1429, 1434, 1547, 1597, 1598, 1698, but once he had been separated from Abraham he represented the external Church and many states of that Church, 2324, 2371, 2399, 2422, 2459, and in the whole of Chapter 19. As regards 'nation' meaning good, see 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849. Here the good of faith is meant since it has reference to the spiritual Church. Hence the words used here, 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation', mean the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith, which is charity.

[2] The Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth is celestial and spiritual, and therefore angels are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual, see 202, 337. To celestial angels the Lord appears as the Sun, to spiritual as the Moon, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531. Men in a similar way are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual. Those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood were celestial, dealt with in 607, 608, 784, 895, 920, 1114-1125, while those who belonged to the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood were spiritual, dealt with in 609, 640, 641, 765. For what the difference was between those two Churches, see 567, 607, and for what the difference is between what is celestial and what is spiritual, 81, 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2069, 2088, 2227, 2507. The celestial are referred to by the Lord in the following,

He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He has led out His own sheep He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.

The spiritual however are referred to in these words,

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:3-4, 16.

The good of love is that which constitutes the celestial Church, but the good of faith that which constitutes the spiritual Church. The truth of faith does not constitute the Church but leads into it.