533. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet. This symbolizes the Lord's New Church in heaven, which is the New Heaven, and the New Church to come on earth, which is the New Jerusalem.

That the woman here symbolizes the Lord's New Church is clear from the particulars in this chapter, understood in their spiritual meaning. To be shown that a woman elsewhere in the Word also symbolizes the church, see no. 434. A woman symbolizes the church because the church is called the Lord's bride and wife.

The woman here appeared clothed with the sun because the church is governed by love toward the Lord; for it acknowledges Him and keeps His commandments, and that is loving Him (John 14:21-24). That the sun symbolizes love may be seen in no. 53.

The moon appeared under the woman's feet because it means the church on earth, which was not yet conjoined with the church in heaven. The moon symbolizes the intelligence in a natural person, and faith (no. 413). And its being seen under the woman's feet means, symbolically, that it was a church to come on earth. Feet otherwise symbolize that same church after it has been conjoined.

[2] It should be known that the church exists in heaven just as on earth. For the Word is found there, and churches, and the preaching of sermons in them. Clerical and priestly orders exist there. For all the angels there were once people, and their departure from the world was for them but a continuation of life. Consequently they are perfected in love and wisdom, each one according to the degree of the affection for truth and goodness that he brought with him from the world.

The church among these is the church meant by the woman clothed with the sun, having on her head a crown of twelve stars. But because the church in heaven does not continue in existence unless there is also a church on earth that possesses an accordant love and wisdom, and this was yet to come, therefore the moon was seen under the woman's feet, which in particular here symbolizes faith, a faith which, as it exists today, is not a means of conjunction.

[3] The church in heaven does not continue in existence unless it is conjoined with a church on earth, because heaven where angels are, and the church where people are, function together, like the internal and external components in a person; and the internal component in a person does not continue in its proper condition unless the external component is joined to it. For the internal component without the external one is like a house without a foundation, or like seed on top of the ground and not in the ground, thus like something without a root - in a word, like a cause without an effect in which to abide.

It can be seen from this that it is an absolute necessity that a church exist somewhere in the world which has the Word and where the Lord is consequently known.

19. [56.] XIX. IN THE WORD "TO LOVE" MEANS "TO DO USES"

The reason for this is that "to love" is "to will," and "to will" is "to do." That "to love" is "to will" has been established just above; but that "to will" is "to do," has now to be established.

Regarded in itself the Will is not love, but the receptacle of love, and such a receptacle that it not only receives love, but also takes on its states, and assumes forms in accordance with them. For everything of a man's life flows in, because a man is not life, but a recipient of it; and consequently, because love is life, he is a recipient of love. This may be illustrated by man's organs of sense; for the eye is a recipient of light, but it is not light, nevertheless it is formed for receiving all variations of light; the ear is a recipient of sound and of its modulation and articulation, but it is not sound; likewise with man's other external senses. It is similar with the internal organs of sense, these being varied and actuated by spiritual light and heat; consequently it is similar with the Will: this is the receiving-organ for spiritual heat, which in its essence is love. This receiving-organ is in every part of man, but it is in its primes in the brains. These primes, or beginnings, or heads, are the cortical and cineritious substances, as they are called, in the brains. Commencing from these substances, by means of fibres, as if by rays, it descends from everywhere in the brains into every part of the face and every part of the body, and there, in accordance with its form, an animate spiritual form which has been treated of elsewhere, ¹ it coils and winds in circles. In this way is actuated each and everything in face and body, from initial things to ultimate things, and in the ultimate things are presented the effects. It is well known that everything is put in motion as the result of effort, and that when the effort ceases, the motion ceases. So every volition of a man's Will is a living effort in him, and it acts in the ultimates of the body by means of the fibres and nerves, these latter being in themselves nothing else but perpetuated efforts continued from their beginnings in the brains right down to the ultimates in the different parts of the body, where the efforts become acts. These things are mentioned to make known what the Will is, namely, that it is the receptacle for love, in a continual effort to act, which effort is stimulated and determined into act by the love that flows in and is received.

[57.] From the above now it follows, that "to love," because it is "to will," is "to do;" for whatever a man loves, that he wills, and what he wills, that, if possible, he does; and even when he does not do it owing to its being impossible, still it is in interior act, which is not manifest. For there can be no effort or Will with any one, unless it is also in ultimates; and being in ultimates, it is in interior act; this act, however, is unperceived by any one even by the man himself, because it has its existence in his spirit. It is on account of this that the Will and act are a one, and that Will is accounted as act; but not in the natural world, for, in the natural world, interior acts of the Will are not apparent; it is so in the spiritual world, however, where these are apparent. For, in the spiritual world, every one acts in accordance with his love; those who are in a heavenly love act sanely: those who are in an infernal love act insanely, or, if they refrain from acting in this way on account of some fear, still interiorly their Will is active, and is only being restrained by them from breaking out. Moreover this interior action only ceases when the Will for it ceases. And so, Will and act being a one, and Will being the effort of love, it follows that nothing else is meant by "loving" in the Word than "doing," consequently by "loving the Lord and loving the neighbour" is meant "doing uses to the neighbour from love derived from the Lord." That this is so, the Lord Himself teaches in John:

He that hath My precepts and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me . . . but he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words (John 14:21, 24).

Also in John:

Abide in My love.... If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love (John 15:9-10).

And again:

Three times the Lord said to Peter, Lovest thou Me?, and three times Peter replies that he does love Him, and the Lord in reply said three times, Feed My lambs and My sheep (John 21:15-17).

Moreover, there are two things that cannot be separated, namely Being (esse) and Existing (existere): "Being" is not anything unless it has existence, and it becomes something by existing. So also with "loving" and "doing," or "willing" and "acting," there being no such thing as loving and not doing, nor any such thing as willing and not acting; they have indeed no existence, for it is by "doing" and by "acting" that they have existence. Consequently, it is only when any one does and acts, that love and Will first exist.

It is in this way and in no other that the Lord and the neighbour are loved.

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