237. And knowest not that thou art wretched. That this signifies that they do not know that their falsities have no coherence with truths is evident from the signification of wretchedness, as denoting the breaking down of truth by falsities, and also no coherence; it is therefore plain what is meant by wretched. The reason why they are thus wretched is that their doctrine is founded upon two false principles, which are faith alone, and justification thereby; therefore falsities flow thence in a continuous series, and the truths which they adduce to confirm them from the letter of the Word are broken down and falsified; and falsified truths are essentially falsities. This is described in many passages in the Word, and is meant by the vanities which the prophets are said to see, and the lies which they are said to speak. The same is also described by the breaches made in walls and in houses, so that they fall; similarly, by the idols and graven images which the artificer is said to make and connect by chains that they may cohere; for by idols and graven images are signified falsities of doctrine. The same is also meant by breaches made in walls and in houses, and by the prophets seeing vanities and speaking lies; for by prophets are meant doctrines; by vanities, such things as are of no account; and by lies, falsities.

But as these things are mentioned in too many passages in the Word to be here adduced in full, we shall only quote some wherein mention is made of wretchedness, and of a wall, in order that it may be known that they signify the breaking down of truths by falsities, and thus no coherence.

[2] In Isaiah:

"Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath seduced thee; when thou saidst in thine heart, I, and none else beside me. Therefore shall wretchedness fall upon thee, and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly" (47:10, 11).

Here also are described those who believe that they know all things, and suppose themselves to be intelligent above all others, when yet they neither know nor understand anything of truth; therefore it follows that the understanding of truth is taken away from them. Their belief that they are more intelligent than all others is meant by Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath seduced thee; when thou saidst in thine heart, I, and none else beside me; and the loss of all understanding of truth is meant by wretchedness shall fall upon thee, desolation shall come upon thee suddenly.

[3] In Ezekiel:

"Wretchedness shall come upon wretchedness; therefore shall they seek a vision from the prophets; but the law hath perished from the priest, and counsel from the elders; the king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with amazement" (7:26, 27).

The vastation of the church is here treated of, which takes place when there is none but falsified truth; falsity from falsity is meant by wretchedness upon wretchedness; a vision from the prophet denotes doctrine, and here, doctrine of falsity; the law hath perished from the priest, denotes that the Word is not understood; for the law signifies the Word, and the priest him that teaches it: counsel hath perished from the elders, denotes that what is right shall perish from the intelligent; counsel denoting what is right, and elders signifying the intelligent: the king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with amazement, denotes that there is no longer any truth; king signifying truth, and the prince truths primarily subservient.

[4] In David:

"What is right is not in their mouth; wretchedness is in the midst of them" (Psalms 5:9);

where wretchedness also signifies falsities not cohering with any truth. Similarly in Jeremiah:

"Howl! and wander among the walls; for their king goeth away into captivity, his priests and princes together" (49:3).

Here by wandering among the walls is meant amongst truths destroyed by falsities; by the king who goeth away into captivity is signified truth; and by his priests and princes together are denoted the goods and truths of life and doctrine, as above.

[5] In Ezekiel:

"When they build a wall [maceries], lo, they daub it with untempered [mortar]. Say unto them that daub with untempered [mortar] that the wall [paries] shall fall. Shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed?" (13:10-12).

The wall which they daubed with untempered [mortar] signifies the falsity which is assumed as a principle, and which, by application of the Word from the sense of the letter, they make to appear as truth. Daubing denotes application, and thence apparent confirmation; untempered [mortar] denotes what is falsified; and because the truth of the Word is thus destroyed, and confirmatory things become truths falsified, which in themselves are falsities, and these perish together with the false principle, therefore it is said, "Behold the wall shall fall; shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing with which ye have daubed?"

[6] In Hosea:

"Behold I hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will encompass wall with wall, that she shall not find thy paths" (2:6).

To hedge up the way with thorns is to obstruct all thoughts by falsities of evil, lest they should see truths; falsities of evil are signified by thorns. To encompass wall with wall is to heap falsities upon falsities; that she shall not find thy paths, denotes that nothing of truth can be seen. This comes to pass because truths can no more co-exist with falsities of evil than heaven can with hell, for truths are from heaven and falsities of evil from hell; therefore, when the latter have rule, communication with heaven is taken away, in which case the former cannot be seen, and if others utter them they are rejected. Hence it is, that those who are in false principles, as, for example, those who are in the principles of faith alone and justification thereby, cannot be in any truths, as may be seen above (n. 235, 236).

[7] But we shall now illustrate this subject by examples. When those who embrace faith alone and justification thereby as a principle of religion, read the Word, and see that the Lord teaches that man shall be rewarded according to his deeds and works, and that he who has done good shall enter heaven, and that he who has done evil shall be cast into hell, they then call the good which they do the fruit of faith, not knowing, or not being willing to know, that the goods which they call fruits of faith are all from charity, and none of them from faith separated from charity, which is called faith alone; for all good belongs to charity, and truth to faith therefrom. From this it is clear that they pervert the Word. But they do this because they cannot otherwise apply the truth to their principle, still believing that they may thus agree together; but truth perishes in consequence, and becomes falsity, and not only becomes falsity but also evil.

[8] That falsities thence follow in a continuous series is also clear; for they teach that the good works which man performs are merit-seeking, not being willing to understand that as faith and its truths are from the Lord, and thus not merit-seeking, so also are charity and its goods. They also teach that as soon as a man receives faith he is reconciled to God the Father by the Son, and that the evils which he afterwards does are not imputed, nor yet the evils which he had done before; for they say that all are saved, however they have lived, if they only receive faith, even in the hours before death. But these and many other things, which are derivations from a false principle, do not agree with truths from the Word, but destroy them, and truths destroyed are falsities, and such falsities as have a bad odour; a grievous smell is perceived from them in the other life, which is such that it cannot be sustained by any good spirit; it is like a stench from diseased lungs. Many other examples might be adduced, of which there is an abundance; for whatsoever is concluded from a false principle derives falsity therefrom, because therein is beheld the principle to which it adheres, because it flows therefrom, and is applied to it.

[9] The true quality of the religion of faith alone, and of justification thereby, may be concluded from this fact alone, that all those who have confirmed those tenets in themselves by doctrine and life, in the other life diffuse from themselves a sphere of abominable adultery, which is that of a mother, or a mother-in-law, with a son; this abominable adultery corresponds to them, and is also perceived from them wherever they go; I have a thousand times known their presence from that sphere. The reason why such a sphere flows forth from them is that they adulterate the goods of charity and of the Word; and adulteries correspond to the adulterations of good, and whoredoms to the falsifications of truth (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2466, 2729, 3399, 4865, 6348, 8904, 10648).

[10] The same is meant by Reuben's lying with Bilhah, of whom his father begat Dan and Naphthali (Genesis 35:22), therefore also he was accursed (Genesis 49:4); and because he polluted the couch of his father, the primogeniture was taken away from him and given to Joseph (1 Chron. 5:1); for by Reuben, in the Word, is meant faith, and in this case faith alone (see Arcana Coelestia 3325, 3861, 3866, 3870, 4601, 4605, 4731, 4734, 4761, 6342, 6350), and by Joseph is meant the good of that faith (see Arcana Coelestia 3969, 3971, 4669, 6417).

[11] That such things would take place at the end of the church is predicted in Daniel, where the statue which Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream is treated of, in these words:

"Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves by the seed of man; but they shall not cohere one with the other, even as iron is not mingled with clay" (2:43).

By iron is meant truth without good; by miry clay, the falsity which is from man's own intelligence; by the seed of man, the Word of the Lord (see Matthew 13:24, 37). Their not cleaving one to another is meant by its being said, they shall not cohere, even as iron is not mingled with clay.

7502. Behold the hand of Jehovah shall be on thy cattle which is in the field. That this signifies the vastation of the truth and good of faith which they have from the church wherein they had been, is evident from the signification of “the hand of Jehovah being on anyone,” as being a plague or punishment; for by “hand” is signified power (see n. 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189), and by “the hand of Jehovah,” omnipotence (n. 878, 3387); and because by those who are in the externals of the church it is believed from the appearance that every plague or punishment comes from Jehovah (for they attribute all things to His power), therefore by “the hand of Jehovah being on anyone” is signified punishment, here vastation, for the degrees of the vastation of those who infested were punishments: from the signification of “cattle,” as being the truths and goods of faith (n. 6016, 6045, 6049); and from the signification of “field” as being the church (n. 2971, 3310). That “field” denotes the church is because the seeds sown in a field signify the truths which are of faith, and also because the produce from the field, such as wheat, barley, spelt, and so forth, denotes the goods which are of charity, and the truths which are of faith, thus such things as belong to the church.

[2] As regards the infernal spirits who infest the upright in the other life being vastated as to the truths of faith that belong to the church, be it known that those who infest the upright in the other life are those who when living in the world had belonged to the church; for those who have not belonged to the church, cannot infest others who do belong to it, because falsities contrary to the truths of faith of the church are the means by which they infest. Those who have been outside the church cannot infest anyone by means of such things, because they had not known them. (That they who have made a profession of faith and have lived a life of evil, in the other life turn to falsities and infest the upright, see n. 7097, 7127, 7317.) Lest therefore the truth of faith, which they have had from the doctrine of their church when they lived in the world (for they carry with them into the other life all that they had known in the life of the body, nor is anything wanting) should give them any light from heaven, and lest they should apply the things of light to defend the falsities and evils which are of hell, every such thing is taken away from them, and they are finally left to the evils of their life and the falsities thence derived. It is this vastation that is here treated of.

[3] The reason why those who have been of the church and have lived a life of evil are thus gradually vastated before they are cast into hell, is that they had known the truths of faith, and thereby had had communication with heaven. The heavenly societies with which they have had communication, and also still have it in the other life, cannot be separated from them except by degrees. For such is the order in heaven from the Lord that nothing is done violently, but all things in freedom as from themselves; therefore those heavenly societies are not wrested from them, but are gradually separated, so that the evil spirits seem to depart of their own accord. From all this it is now evident how the case is with the vastation of those who have known the truths of faith that belong to the church, and yet have led a life of evil.

[4] That such is the case no one can know except from revelation, for man has no knowledge of the things that exist in the other life except from revelation; and as man is but little solicitous to explore the truths and goods which are of faith from the Word (for he is in no affection of truth for its own sake, still less for the sake of life), therefore such things are not revealed to him; nevertheless they stand forth in the Word (and this in respect to every series and process) in its internal sense. As therefore the man of the church is in no affection of knowing truth from the Word, but only in the affection of confirming the doctrinal things of his own church whether true or false, for worldly reasons, therefore he knows nothing whatever about the state after death, nothing about heaven, and nothing about hell; he does not even know what makes heaven and what makes hell with man. Nay, so ignorant are men that they teach and believe that everyone can be admitted into heaven; some by a power which they have arrogated to themselves; some by the mercy of the Lord, no matter how they had lived; and scarcely any know that heaven is given to man by means of a life of charity and faith during his life in the world, and that this life remains. These things have been said in order that the quality may be known of that man of the church who professes faith alone and cares not about the life of faith; for these are they who are represented by the Egyptians here and in what follows.