10331. 'In wisdom, and in intelligence, and in knowledge, and in all [manner of] work' means in respect of those things which compose the will and those which constitute the understanding within the internal man and within the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'wisdom' as those things which compose the will within the internal man; from the meaning of 'intelligence' as those things which constitute the understanding, also within the internal man; from the meaning of 'knowledge' as those things which constitute the understanding and consequent speech within the external man; and from the meaning of 'work' as those things which compose the will and consequent practice within the external man. So the words used here mean everything - everything interior and everything exterior residing with a person in whom the good of celestial love exists - that receives the influx of Divine Truth from the Lord and is consequently seen in light. This influx and enlightenment are dealt with immediately above.

[2] But a brief statement needs to be made showing what wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, and work are. People who do not know what the internal man is and what the external man is, nor what understanding and will are, cannot see in what ways wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, and work are distinct and separate each from the others. They cannot do so because they cannot form any clear idea of one or of another. The people therefore who do not know those things call someone wise when he is merely intelligent or has only knowledge. But someone wise is a person who is moved by love to put truths into practice; someone intelligent is a person who is moved by faith to put them into practice; someone with knowledge is a person who applies his knowledge to doing so; and 'work' is that which is actually done by them. Thus 'work' means those three talents when put to use, within which they all combine.

[3] Nobody therefore can be said to have wisdom, intelligence, or knowledge in the true sense of these words if they are not put to use by him; for wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge have to do with the life a person should lead, and not with doctrine without reference to that life. Life is the end for the sake of which they exist. What the end is like therefore determines what kind of wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge they are. If real good, which is the good of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour, constitutes the end, then they are wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge in the proper sense of these three words; for then these three as they exist with a person have their origin in the Lord. But if acting for the sake of some good desired by self-love and love of the world constitutes the end, they are not wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge, because then those three as they exist in a person have their origin in self. For any good which self-love and love of the world have as their end in view is evil, and when evil is the end in view nothing of wisdom and intelligence, nor even of knowledge, can be attributed in any way at all. For what use is knowledge if it does not hold an intelligent understanding of truth and a wise discernment of good within it? Knowledge devoid of these leads a person to think that evil is good and falsity is truth.

[4] In the case of those in whom the good of love to the Lord is present wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, and work follow in order from inmost to last and lowest. Wisdom there is inmost, since it consists in a will, inspired by love, that desires what is right. Intelligence is second, since it consists in an understanding, governed by a will desiring what is right, that perceives what is right. These two belong to the internal man. Knowledge consists in knowing what is right, and work in doing what is right, each governed by the will desiring what is right. These two belong to the external man. From this it is evident that wisdom must exist within intelligence, this within knowledge, and this within work. The work accordingly contains and embraces all the inner virtues, since it is last and lowest and that in which they terminate.

[5] From all this it becomes clear what should be understood by 'works' and 'deeds', mentioned so many times in the Word, as in the following places: In Matthew,

The Son of Man will repay everyone according to his deeds. Matthew 16:27.

In Jeremiah,

I will requite them according to their work and according to the deed of their hands. Jeremiah 25:14.

In the same prophet,

... O Jehovah, whose eyes have been opened upon all the ways of man, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his works. Jeremiah 32:19.

In the same prophet,

Turn back each of you from his evil way, and cause your works to be good. Jeremiah 35:15.

In Hosea,

I will punish his ways ¹ , and requite him for his works. Hosea 4:9.

In Zechariah,

Jehovah deals with us according to our ways and according to our works. Zechariah 1:6.

In John,

I will give to you each according to his works. Revelation 2:23.

In the same book,

They were judged every one according to their works. Revelation 20:13, 15.

In the same book,

Behold, I am coming, and My reward with Me, to give to everyone according to his works. Revelation 22:12.

By 'works' in these places all that exists within a person should be understood, because all that constitutes what a person wills and understands is present in his works; for the things in his will and understanding are what causes him to do them. From what is within them the works derive their life; for without it works are like a shell without the nut or a body without the soul. What proceeds from a person does so from the things within him; therefore works are manifestations of those inner things, and they are effects through which those inner things reveal themselves.

[6] It is a general rule that as is a person's character, so is every work he performs. For this reason 'the works' according to which there will be reward or retribution must be taken to mean a person's character so far as his love and faith are concerned. For works are the product of the love and faith residing in a person. Nothing other than his love and his faith constitute the person, or what amounts to the same thing, his good and his truth, see 10076, 10177, 10264, 10284, 10298.

[7] Furthermore the actual desires in a person's will are what constitute a work; for what a person desires in his will he also does, provided that nothing insurmountable stands in the way. Consequently being judged according to one's deeds means being judged according to the desires of one's will. In the Word those who do good because it is their will to do it are called 'the righteous', as is evident in Matthew 25:37, 46. Of them it is said that they will shine forth like the sun in heaven, Matthew 13:43; and in Daniel,

Those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars. Daniel 12:3.

'Those who have intelligence' are those who are moved by their intelligence to do what is true; and 'those who turn many to righteousness' are those who are stirred by the desires in their will to do what is good.

Footnotes:

10076. 'For it is the ram of fillings [of the hand]' means a representative sign of the Lord's Divine power in the heavens which comes through Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good, and the transmission and the reception of that Truth there. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ram' as a person internally in respect of the good of innocence and charity within him, dealt with above in 9991, for all beasts serve to mean some human affection or inclination, 9280, which is why people possessing charity and innocence are called sheep and lambs, and 'a ram' therefore, being a male sheep, means the good of charity and innocence in the internal man, or in the highest sense that same good present internally in the Lord's Human (for that which in the internal sense means something truly human, thus something constituting the Church or heaven with a person, in the highest sense means that same virtue present in a matchless degree within the Lord when He was in the world; indeed the subject everywhere in the Word in its inmost sense is the Lord, and this is what gives it its holiness); and from the meaning of 'fillings of the hand' as a representative sign of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens, and as the transmission of that Truth to the angels there and their reception of it. For as has been shown previously, just as a person who is being regenerated experiences two states, the first being a time when the truths of faith are being implanted in and joined to the good of love, and the second a time when the good of charity is the source of his actions, so it was in a matchless degree within the Lord. The first state of the glorification of His Human consisted in His making it Divine Truth and joining it to the Divine Good which was within Him and was called the Father, and in His thereby becoming the Divine Good of Divine Love, which is Jehovah. The second state of His glorification was when the Divine Good of Divine Love was the source of what He did, and the Divine Truth emanating from that Good was the means by which He accomplished it.

[2] In the case of a person, in the first state he learns things that must compose his faith, and while he is learning them, under the influence of good, that is, through good from the Lord, so the power of understanding is taking shape in him. When the truths giving shape to the understanding have been implanted in and joined to good he passes into the second state, in which his actions spring from good through the use of truths. From this it is evident what the second state of a person who is being regenerated is like, namely a state in which thought and actions spring from good, or what amounts to the same thing, from love, or what also amounts to the same thing, from the will; for what a person wills he loves, and what he loves he calls good. But a person begins to be in the second state when his entire self from head to toe is the same as his love, and so is the same as his will and his understanding springing from it. Who can ever credit it that the entire person is an image of his will and of his understanding rooted in it, consequently an image of his good and so of his truth, or else an image of his evil and so of his falsity? For good or evil compose the will, and truth or falsity compose the understanding. All angels in heaven are acquainted with this arcanum; but the reason why people in the world are not acquainted with it is that they have no knowledge of their soul, nor consequently any knowledge that the body is shaped so as to be a likeness of it, and therefore that the nature of the entire person is determined by that of his soul. This fact is clearly demonstrated by spirits and angels as seen in the next life. All these are human forms, and the nature of those forms is determined by that of the affections belonging to their love and faith, so much so that anyone in whom the good of love and charity is present may be called an embodiment of love and charity, and on the other hand anyone in whom evils resulting from self-love and love of the world are present, thus in whom hatred and the like are present, may be called an embodiment of hatred.

[3] The same fact is also clearly demonstrated by the three entities present in the whole natural order which flow one from another, namely effect, cause, and end. An effect owes its whole existence to the cause, for an effect is nothing other than the outward manifestation of a cause, because when a cause becomes an effect it clothes itself in things such as exist on external levels, in order that it may manifest itself in a lower sphere, which is the sphere of effects. The situation is similar with the cause of a cause, which in a higher sphere is called the final cause or the end. The end constitutes the all within the cause, making it a cause set to achieve something. For a cause that is not set to achieve something cannot be called a cause, for what other reason is there for its existence? Setting out to achieve something is the end, which is the first thing within the cause and also its last. From this it is evident that the end is so to speak the soul of the cause and so to speak its life, and consequently is also the soul and life of the effect. For if a cause and an effect lack the ability to complete the end in view, none of these has any real existence, because it does not set out to achieve anything, and so is like some dead object devoid of soul and life; and such a thing expires, like a body when the soul departs from it.

[4] The situation is the same with the human being. His actual soul is his will; the attendant cause by means of which his will produces the effect is his understanding; and the effect which is produced resides in the body and so belongs to the body. The truth of this is plainly evident from the consideration that what a person wills, and therefore thinks, fittingly presents itself in an effect within the body, in this way when he speaks, in that way when he acts. From all this it is again evident that what a person's will is like determines what the entire person is like. Whether one speaks of the will, end, love, or good it amounts to the same thing; for everything that a person wills is seen by him to be the end, is loved by him, and is called good. Likewise whether one speaks of the understanding, the cause attending the end, faith, or truth, it again amounts to the same thing; for what a person under the influence of his will understands or thinks he takes to be the cause, believes, and calls the truth. When these things are understood by someone he may know what a person undergoing regeneration is like in his first state, and what he is like in the second.

[5] From all this people may have some idea of how to understand the teaching that when the Lord was in the world and glorified His Human He first made it Divine Truth, and step by step the Divine Good of Divine Love; and that ever after the Divine Good of Divine Love is the source of His acts in heaven and in the world, and of the life He imparts to them, which He accomplishes by means of Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of Divine Love of His Divine Human. For from this the heavens have come into being and are constantly coming into being, that is, being held in being; or what amounts to the same thing, from it the heavens have been created and are constantly being created, that is, preserved, for preservation is constant creation, even as being held in being is constant coming into being.

[6] Such considerations are also contained in the following words in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And the Word became flesh. John 1:1, 3, 14.

'The Word' is Divine Truth. The first state is described by the statement, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God', and the second state by, 'All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made'. The situation was similar when the Lord came into the world, restored the heavens to order, and so to speak created them anew. The Lord is clearly meant by 'the Word' in the above words, for they say that 'the Word became flesh'. The transmission and the perception of Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of Divine Love of the Lord's Divine Human is what 'the filling of the hand' means and what the representative acts associated here with the second ram describe.

[7] Since the Lord in respect of Divine Good is represented by Aaron, 9806, the glorification of the Lord's Human is described in a representative manner by the process in which Aaron and his sons were consecrated. The first state of glorification is described by the things stated regarding the sacrifice of the young bull and the burnt offering of the first ram, and the second state of glorification by those stated regarding the second ram, called 'the ram of fillings [of the hand]'. The first state is called the anointing, while the second state is called the filling of the hand. So it was when Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priesthood by anointing and filling of the hand that they were referred to as 'the anointed' and 'those whose hands he has filled', as in Moses,

The chief priest, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has filled his hand to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rip apart the seams of his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

From these things also it is evident that 'the filling of the hand' is a representative sign of the transmission and the reception of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens, for it says 'who has filled his hand', not who has had his hand filled. It also says that he has filled his hand 'to wear the garments', for by Aaron and the anointing of him the Lord in respect of Divine Good is represented, and by his garments the same as is represented by 'the filling of the hand', namely Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. For this representation of 'the garments', see 9814. The dispersion of that Truth is meant by 'ripping apart the seams of garments', and the dispersion of Divine Good in the heavens by 'shaving the head'.

[8] Since the inflowing and transmission of Divine Truth from the Lord, and the reception of it in the heavens, is meant by 'the filling of the hand', purification from evils and falsities is also meant by it. For to the extent that man or angel is purified from them he receives Divine Truth from the Lord. 'Filling the hand' is meant in this sense by the following words in Moses,

The sons of Levi struck down from the people three thousand men. And Moses said, Fill your hand today to Jehovah, so that He may bestow a blessing on you today. Exodus 32:28-29.

In the spiritual sense being blessed means being endowed with the good of love and faith, thus receiving what is Divine emanating from the Lord, 2846, 3017, 3406, 4981, 6091, 6099, 8939. The expression 'filling after Jehovah' ¹ is also used in Moses, by which acting in accord with Divine Truth, and thus also the reception of it, is meant,

Another Spirit has been with Caleb, and he has filled after Jehovah. Numbers 14:24; Deuteronomy 1:36.

And in another place,

Jehovah has sworn, saying, Surely none of the men who are twenty years old and over ² will see the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not filled after Me, except Caleb and Joshua, who have filled after Jehovah. Numbers 32:11-12.

Footnotes: