The Bible

 

Genesis 8

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1 And God remembered Noah, and every living animal, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were checked.

2 The fountains also of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreased continually, till the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, till the waters were dried from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in to him into the ark.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11 And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off: So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; which returned not again to him any more.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.

14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

15 And God spoke to Noah, saying,

16 Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every living animal that is with thee, of all flesh, of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping animal that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

19 Every beast, every creeping animal, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.

20 And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every living animal as I have done.

22 While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #916

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916. That “every wild animal and every creeping thing” signify the goods of the man of the church; “wild animal” the goods of the internal man; “creeping thing” those of the external man; and that “every fowl and everything that creepeth upon the earth” signify truths; “fowl” the truths of the internal man; and “thing that creepeth upon the earth” those of the external man, is evident from what was said and shown under the preceding verse in regard to wild animal, fowl, and creeping thing, where it is said “creeping thing that creepeth” because both good and truth of the external man were signified. Inasmuch as what is here said is the conclusion to what goes before, these things which are of the church are added, namely, its goods and truths; and by them is indicated the quality of the church, that it is spiritual, and that it became such that charity or good was the principal thing; and therefore “wild animal and creeping thing” are here first mentioned, and afterwards “fowl and thing that creepeth.”

[2] The church is called spiritual when it acts from charity, or from the good of charity-never when it says that it has faith without charity, for then it is not even a church. For what is the doctrine of faith but the doctrine of charity? And to what purpose is the doctrine of faith, but that men should do what it teaches? It cannot be merely to know and think what it teaches, but only that what it teaches should be done. The spiritual church is therefore first called a church when it acts from charity, which is the very doctrine of faith. Or, what is the same thing, the man of the church is then first a church. Just in the same way, what is a commandment for? not that a man may know, but that he may live according to the commandment. For then he has in himself the kingdom of the Lord, since the kingdom of the Lord consists solely in mutual love and its happiness.

[3] Those who separate faith from charity, and make salvation consist in faith without the good works of charity, are Cainites who slay the brother Abel, that is, charity. And they are like birds which hover about a carcass; for such faith is a bird, and a man without charity is a carcass. Thus they also form for themselves a spurious conscience, so that they may live like devils, hold the neighbor in hatred and persecute him, pass their whole life in adulteries, and yet be saved, as is well known in the Christian world. What can be more agreeable to a man than to hear and be persuaded that he may be saved, even if he live like a wild beast? The very Gentiles perceive that this is false, many of whom abhor the doctrine of Christians because they see their life. The real quality of such a faith is evident also from the fact that nowhere is there found a life more detestable than in the Christian world.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.