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Index - Arcana Coelestia (Hyde edition) #2

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2. B

Babel (Babel). What is signified by Babel, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322. Babel denotes worship whose externals appear holy, but the interiors are profane, 1182; worship in which there is the love of self, thus profaned worship, 1326; also what vastates, 1327:6. Babel denotes the profanation of good; Chaldea denotes the profanation of truth, thus those who have self for the end in worship; to whom worship is for the sake of self and the love of ruling, for which holy goods serve as means. Chaldea denotes those whose holy things are not true, 1368, 3901:8, 6534:6.

[Babylon. See BABEL.]

Back (tergum). [See also AFTER.] The voluntary of man is presented from the back, from correspondence with the Grand Man, 8194. To go after them, when it relates to the Divine, denotes to protect the voluntary against infernals, for they are from the back, 8194.

[Back. See BACKWARDS.]

Back Parts (posteriora). They who deny the Word do not see the back parts of Jehovah: shown, 10584:3. To see the back parts of Jehovah denotes the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, 10584.

Backwards (retro). [See also AFTER.] That one ought not to look away from good to truth, thus backwards: illustrated, 7923, 8516; shown, 10184. What to look from good to truth means, explained; and what from truth to good, which is the inverse, and what to look from good is, according to the order of heaven, and that then the Lord has rest, and as it were man also, 8505, 8506, 8510. He who is led of the Lord by means of good is he that lives according to Divine order, thus in the Lord, 8512.

What is implied by backwards, 248. What to look backwards, or to look back (respicere), signifies, 2454, 7857. To look backwards denotes to turn from good in which there is the celestial, to the doctrinal of faith, and so to leave good, 5895:5, 5897:9. To turn back again to take a garment denotes to turn from the good of truth in which one is to the doctrinal of truth, 3652. To go backwards denotes to be in evil: shown, 10584e.

Badger (melis). The skins of badgers denotes external goods, 9471.

[Bake, To. See To BOIL.]

Baker (pistor). Baker denotes, in the internal sense, the sensual things subject to the voluntary part; whence this is, 5078, 5082.

Balaam (Balaam). Concerning Balsam,1343e. That there were Divine prophecies with others than the Israelites, exemplified by Balsam, 2898.

Baldness (calvities). Baldness denotes that there is no truth: shown, 3301:9. See HAIR (pilus). Baldness denotes deprivation of the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good: shown, 9960:3.

[Band. See under BOND and TROOP.

Bank (ripa). What is signified by the bank of the river, 5205. The bank of the stream denotes the state of falsity, 7308.]

Banner (vexillum). When it is an ensign, 8624. See SIGN.

Baptism (baptismus). See INUNDATION. What baptism is; briefly, 2702e. Doctrine of Baptism, 10386-10392. Baptism is a sign that a man is of the Church, and a memorial that he is to be regenerated by means of the truths of faith and a life according to them, 10386-10388. The waters of baptism also signify temptations, 10389. Because baptism is a sign and a memorial, therefore a man can be baptised when an infant as well as when an adult, 10390. Baptism does not bestow faith, nor salvation, but it testifies of these, if anyone is being regenerated, 10391. Explanation of Mark 16:16: baptising denotes regeneration by the Lord by means of truths from the Word, 10392.

How infants represented baptism, 2299. Baptism denotes initiation into the Church and those things which are of the Church, and this S. regeneration and those things which are of regeneration, 4255:5. Baptism signifies regeneration, for this is effected by spiritual combats, it also signifies temptation, 5120:12. Washings formerly and baptism today signify regeneration by means of the truths of faith, because waters denotes the truths of faith, 9088. Washing denotes purification, but complete washing, or that of the whole body, which is called baptising, denotes regeneration: shown, 10239. The baptising of the Lord was a representative of the glorification of the Lord's Human by means of temptations, 10239:4. Washing the feet of the Lord's disciples (John 13:5-10) is explained, 10243.

[Bar. See STAFF.

Bared. See BERED.]

Barley (hordeum). Barley denotes good of the natural or external man: shown, 7602.

Barren (sterilis). What barren s.; that truths were not received, 3857. That the barren called themselves dead was because they had no goods and truths, which are sons and daughters, 3908. Barren denotes no life from truth and good: shown, 9325; also the nations who are not in good, because they are not in truths, and yet desire truths that they may be in good: shown, 9325:7.

Base (basis). Base denotes support, 9643; by means of the truth of faith from good, 9748. The base of the layer, in which purification took place, denotes the natural: shown; the subject of the ten bases near the Temple of Solomon, etc., is explained, 10236.

Basin (pelvis). Basin denotes the good of the natural, 7920; and the natural, 7922.

[Basis. See BASE.]

Basket (canistrum). See BASKET (corbis).

Basket (corbis). Basket denotes the voluntary part as containing good: shown, 5144. Perforated baskets denotes voluntary things without termination in the middle, 5145:2. Basket (corbis seu canistrum) denotes the sensual delight, and is predicated of good, and a bowl or goblet denotes the sensual scientific, which is the ultimate, and is predicated of truth, 9996.

[Be, To, Being. See ESSE.

Beam. See ROOF.]

Beams (asseres). Beams for the dwelling denotes the good which supports heaven, 9634.

Bear, To (portaree). To bear denotes to continue in a state of good and truth, so to exist and subsist,9500; to exist and subsist: briefly shown, 9737; to preserve, 9900.

[Bear, To. See To BRING FORTH.]

Beard (barba). Before the flood they believed that the Lord would come, but aged and bearded; thence was the religious observance as to the beard, 1124. Beards denotes sensual scientifics which are ultimate truths, 9960:3.

Beast (bestia). [See also WILD BEAST.] Beasts live according to order, but not man, 6372. That there is an influx into the lives of beasts is known 1633. There is an influx from the spiritual world into the souls of beasts and into their bodies, but it is differently received; concerning which, 3646. Beasts are in the order of their own nature, and, therefore, there is a general influx into them from the spiritual world, 5850. All scientifics are in loves: illustrated from beasts, 6323. Concerning some who live like beasts which have little of life, and life was inspired into them through angels, 3647.

Man has a connection with the Lord above beasts, and thence he cannot die, 4525. The distinction between man and beasts is that man has an internal, that he can be elevated towards the Lord, can see external things in himself, can think of Divine things, and can be conjoined to the Lord, and so can live after death, 9231. How much man is above beasts, 6323:3.

Beasts of various kinds were represented when discourse with angels was about affections: beautiful animals,-tame and useful, when about good affections, and hideous, fierce, and useless when about evil affections, 3218. Beasts in the Word and rituals represent goods and truths with man; and whence this is, 2179. Beasts signify affections; evil with the evil, and good with the good, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776. That beasts denotes affections is from the representatives in the spiritual world, 5198:2. That beasts signify such things as are of affection and inclination, illustrated from representatives in heaven, 9090:2. Beasts in the sacrifices signified celestial and spiritual things, 1823; tame and useful beasts, the celestial things which are of good, and the spiritual things which are of truth: shown, 3519:2; principally in the sacrifices, 3519s. Beasts signified goods: shown, 2180. Evil beasts signified evil affections, 719. There are beasts that signify the voluntary things, and those that signify the intellectual things of man; what they are, 2781. That beasts signified affections and inclinations such as man has in common with them: references; and, therefore, they were used in sacrifices: references, 9280. Man and beast denotes interior and exterior evil of lust, and interior and exterior good or evil, 7424; shown, 7523. From man even unto beast denotes the interior and exterior evil lusts, 7872. A beast of burden denotes what is stupid and but little conscious, 9040.

Beast of Burden (jumentum). See BEAST.

Beast, Wild (fera). Beasts and wild beasts denotes affections and lusts, 45, 46. Wild beasts denotes what is living and good, 774; also the living; why, 841, 908; also signifies ferine, 908:3; the viler things in man, 1030; the evils and falsities of the love of self and the world, thus those who are in these: shown, 9335; also the upright gentiles, because they are in falsities: shown, 9335:5. Evil wild beasts denotes a lie from the life of lusts, 4729; vastation of the evil from falsity, and damnation from the evil thereof: shown, 7102:2. Wild beast of the field denotes those who are in the delights of external truth, 9276.

Beauty (pulchritudo). [See also COMELINESS.] Old women who have lived well, when they enter heaven, return to the flower of their youth, and become most beautiful, 553. Everything beautiful is from good, 553, 3080, 4985. The beauty of angels, which is ineffable, is from good through truth, 4985. The beauty of angels is ineffable, because they are forms of heaven, 5199. Angels are forms of love and charity, and love and charity shine forth from their faces, in a type, 3804:2, 4735:2, 4797, 4985e, 5199, 5530, 9879, 10177:4.

What beautiful form and beautiful in look signifies, 3821, 4985. See FORM. Beauty denotes truths from good, thence beautiful in look denotes what is of faith, 5199.

Bed (lectus). Bed denotes the natural: shown, 6188; the inmost; when, 7354. A bed is attributed to Jacob: shown; and when he is thought of, a bed appears in which there is a man, because a bed denotes the natural, and so does Jacob, 6463s. The head of a bed denotes the interior natural, 6188. To sit upon a bed denotes to turn oneself to the natural, 6226.

Bedchamber (cubiculum). See HOUSE.

[Bee. See INSECT.]

Beer-Lahairoi (Beerlachairoi). Beer-Lahairoi denotes Rational Divine Good born of the Divine Truth, 3194; also Divine Light, 3261.

Beer-Sheba (Beerscheba). Beer-Sheba denotes doctrine, 3466; the state and quality of doctrine: namely, that it is Divine to which human rational things are adjoined, 2614, 2723; the doctrine of charity and faith, 2858, 2859; charity and faith, 5997.

[Befall, To. See HAPPENINGS.]

Beginning (principium). See PHANTASY and PERSUASION. What the beginning signifies, 16. He who holds false principles makes all things favour them, 362, 794. He who confirms false principles from the Word; his quality, and that ho does so easily, 589. That the persuasion of what is false makes the life of his understanding, which life is hurtful, 794, 806. That the principles of what is false prevent the operation of remains, 798. That falsities do not condemn so much, unless they are from evils, and thereby men are confirmed in falsities, 845. How it is with accepted principles; that those in them cannot even see truths, 1017. That they who imbibe false principles are vastated, 1106; they are reduced to ignorance, and afterwards are imbued with truths of faith, 1109. How direful and horrifying are the persuasions of the antediluvians, 1270. That the spheres of persuasions and principles of falsity excite confirmations of the false, 1510, 1511. The sphere of phantasies is in the appearance of a cloud, 1512. That there are three kinds of persuasions of what is false; concerning which, 1673. Persuasions of what is false from the love of self, and from the love of the world; the difference, 1675:5. That principles of whatever kind, even truths, may be contaminated by a false principle: an example concerning faith, 2385:3. That they do not suffer themselves to be persuaded against their principles; if the love of self and of the world inflates them, it partakes of a kind of fire, 2385:2. How ideas bend themselves and enter successively into persuasions, or principles of what is false; and how they are bent towards goods and truths in the regenerated, 1874, 1875. How what is false can be confirmed by many things so that it still appears as if true; and how truth is confirmed: exemplified, 2482-2490. [There is nothing which may not be infused into principles of what is false as confirming them, 2567. There is an affirmative principle, a negative principle, and a doubtful principle, 2568. There are two principles, one of folly, and the other of wisdom, 2568:4. What it is to see from principles, or ends and causes, 2572. There are two principles of thinking, the affirmative and the negative; and there is a doubtful principle before they deny or affirm, 2588:2. They who are ignorant of principles are pot able to reason, 3748. That the essence and quality of a beginning is drawn and passes into the sequents, 3939. The quality of those who are confirmed in the principles of what is false, 3986:4. A confirmed principle of falsity does not admit the Divine, 3986:4. What are the principles of intelligence in which angels are above men, 4318. The principles of falsity entirely overshadow truths, 4674:2. From a false principle the deductions become false in a continuous series, 4717e, 4720e. A principle is like a soul from which is the life of the rest, 4736. The principles of falsity and the delights of life therefrom cannot be cast out except by temptations, 5037. Whence are the beginnings of many diseases, 5718. Whence is the leading principle, 6047:2. What the beginning of might signifies, 6344. A principle so called is indistinguishable, 7236, 9002. The principles of the truth of faith are entirely without effect with man, unless the Lord insinuates an affection of spiritual love, 7342. Everyone in the other life retains the principles of faith which he had in the life of the body, 8313. The beginnings of motions and senses are in the head, 9656. What the beginnings are like, 9656. The will and understanding are in their beginnings in the head, 10044. To say what is contrary to principles confirmed through his loves, is to say what is contrary to the man himself, 10307e.

Behind. See BACK.

Being. See ESSE.]

Bells (tintinnabula). Bells denotes all things of doctrine and worship which pass to those who are of the Church, 9921.

Belly (venter). What the serpent going on his belly signifies, 247, 248. What the fruit of the belly signifies, 3911. See To BRING FORTH. Belt (balteus). See CANDLE.

Bend Oneself Down, To (inflectere se). See TO BOW ONESELF DOWN.

Benjamin (Benjamin). Benjamin denotes the spiritual-celestial man, Joseph, the celestial-spiritual, 3969:3; or Benjamin, faith in which is charity, or truth in which is good, and Joseph, charity from which is faith, or good from which is truth, 3969:3; Benjamin is the spiritual of the celestial, and Joseph, the celestial of the spiritual: shown, 4592:5. Benjamin denotes a medium, 5411; concerning which see 5411:2, 5413, 5443; interior truth, 5600, 5631; the spiritual medium, 5639; the internal, because a medium; from the celestial of the spiritual as a father, and from the natural as a mother, 5686, 5689; as a medium, what was born after all; concerning which see 5688; new truth, 5804, 5806, 5809, 5812, 5816, 5830; a medium; why so; interior truth with respect to that in the natural with the father, 5843; a conjoining medium, and how it partakes of both, 5822; the truth of the good of the spiritual Church, which is Joseph, 6440. Joseph and Benjamin denotes the uniting medium represented by the veil, 9671.

Bered (Bared). What Bered signifies, 1958.

Bereft, To be Bereaved (orbus, orbari). Bereaved, when it relates to the Church, denotes to be deprived of its truths, 5536, 5632.

Beryl (tharschish). The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper denotes the spiritual love of truth, or the external good of the Spiritual Kingdom, 9872. What Tarshish signifies, 1156.

Bethel (Bethel). What Bethel signifies,1450, 1451, 1453, 1557. Bethel denotes the cognitions of celestial things which are in childhood, 1451; good in the ultimate of order, 3729; the cognitions of good and truth, in particular the natural in which interiors are terminated, 4539. The God of Bethel denotes the Divine in the Natural, thus in the ultimate of order, 4089, 4539. El Bethel denotes the Holy Natural; El, the Divine: Bethel, the Natural, 4559, 4560.

Bethlehem (Bethlechem). Bethlehem denotes the spiritual of the celestial in a new state; Ephrath, the same in a former state: shown, 4594.

Bethuel (Bethuel). Bethuel denotes the good of the nations of the first class, 2865, 3665, 3778:2.

Betroth, To (desponsare). See BRIDEGROOM.

[Bewail, To. See To WEEP.]

Besaleel (Bezaleel). Bezaleel who did works denotes those who are in the good of love, with whom the Church would be established, 10329.

Bilhah (Bilha). Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, signifies exterior affections serving for mediums, 3849.

Bind, To (ligare). What to bind signifies, when temptations are treated of, 2813.

Binding Together (colligatio). See BUNDLE.

Bird (avis). Why the birds were not divided in the sacrifices, 1832. Birds are represented when angels discourse on thoughts, ideas, and influx, 3219. A vision that represented obscure and deformed birds, also others noble and beautiful, when the discourse was on the influx of thoughts, and that those who were in falsity fell down from an angelic society, 3219. Concerning the baneful flying thing with the Egyptians, 7441. See INSECT. Concerning a beautiful bird which shall signify the inhabitants of Mars, 7620-7622. See MARS.

Birds denotes rational and intellectual things, 40:3, 745, 776, 991; intellectual things, thoughts, ideas, reasons, thus truths and falsities: shown, 5149, 7441; phantasies and falsities, 778, 866, 988.

Birth (nativitas). See GENERATION. Births denotes those things that belong to faith, 1145, 1255; derivations of the Church, 1330; derivations, 3263; derivations, but when it relates to the Lord, denotes what is from the Divine Rational, and from this, the Natural, 3279; truth, because it is born of good, 4070; truths from good, or the things of faith from charity, 4668; the rebirth through faith and charity, 5598. To be born denotes to be reborn or regenerated, 5160. Conceptions and bearing are spiritual, and what things are understood, 3860, 3868. See also To BRING FORTH.

[Birthright. See PRIMOGENITURE.]

Bitter, Bitter Herbs or Bitterness (amarum, amaror seu amarstudo). Bitter herbs denotes undelightful things, and the undelightful things of temptation: shown, 7854. Bitter denotes what is undelightful, 8349.

Bitumen (bitumen). What bitumen signifies, 1299. Bitumen denotes good mixed with evils, 6724.

Blacks (nigri). The avaricious, when they are excoriated like swine, from being black become white, 939. In the habitation of dragons, black spirits were seen, 950. One who considered he had lived holily without works of charity became black, 952.

Black denotes evil, especially man's proprium, 3993:5, 3994. The black cattle in the lambs denotes the proprium of innocence; concerning which, 3994 4001.

Bladder (vesica). Concerning the correspondence of the kidneys, the ureters, and the bladder,5380-5386. See KIDNEYS. The functions of those who constitute the sphincter of the bladder or urethras, 5389.

Blain (pustula). A boil of blains denotes unclean things from evils with blasphemies, and blains denotes blasphemies, 7524.

[Blamelessness (immunitas). Blamelessness, in the original language, is expressed by a word that also means cleanness and purity. It relates to the affection of truth, 2526.]

Blasphemy (blasphemia). They who in heart deny the Word blaspheme it: shown, 9222. The blasphemies which are from the intellectual part, and those from the voluntary, [9221,] 9222:4.

[Blast (clangor). Blast denotes the truth of spiritual good, 8815.]

Bless, To (benedicere). To bless denotes to be fructified from the affection of truth, 2846; conjunction, 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584; joy, 4216; that it was so done, 4309; a wish for conjunction, and fructification therefrom, 6091, 6099; foresight and providence, 6298; to intercede, 7963. To bless, when one bids farewell to one leaving, denotes to wish prosperity, 3185. What is signified by to be blessed, 981, 1731. To be blessed denotes to be arranged in spiritual and celestial order, 3017. To be blessed by Jehovah denotes to be enriched with the good of love, 3406. What blessed of Jehovah signifies, 1096 1422, 3119. Blessed of Jehovah denotes Divine Good, and also Divine Truth therefrom, 3140; all good from the Lord, 8674. What blessing signifies, 1096, 1420, 1422. It signifies love and charity from the Lord, and various things therefrom, which are consequents and increments in good and truth, 4981; prediction, 6230: shown, 6254; happiness to eternity, which is not what it is in time: illustrated, 8939; the reception of Divine Truth, and by means of it conjunction with the Lord, 10495. May God bless denotes a beginning, 3260.

Blessedness (beatitudo). Blessedness, from which Asher was called, in the highest sense, denotes eternity; in the internal sense, the happiness of eternal life; in the external sense, the delight of affections, 3938, 3939.

Blind, Blindness (coecus or coecus, coecitas). Blindness is predicated respecting those who are in falsities, also respecting those who are in ignorance: shown,2383. Blind denotes no faith, because no cognitions; and in the Word denotes those who are in ignorance of the truth, because they are outside the Church, but when instructed receive faith: shown to some extent, 6990.

Blood (sanquis). The cruel and violent, in the other life, are delighted to see blood, 954. Blood signifies violence offered to charity, and all evil, 374, 1005; what is holy, as the Lord Himself, love, and charity, 1001; the holy truth which proceeds from the Lord, and, in the opposite sense, truth falsified and profaned: shown, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326; holy truth which relates to the good of innocence, 7846, 7877; Divine Truth of the Divine Good which is from the Divine Human of the Lord, and what is reciprocal on man's part, 7850 (see SUPPER); Divine Truth: shown, 9127, the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord: shown, 9393; Divine Truth, and it is the Lord's blood, 10026: shown, 10033:2; Divine Truth: references, 10210; the intellectual proprium; and flesh denotes the voluntary proprium: shown, 10283:2.

Blood crying signifies guilt, 376. By eating of blood profanation was formerly represented, 1003. Blood being demanded denotes remorse of conscience, 5476. The blood of grapes denotes Divine Good from the Lord's Divine Love, 6378. The blood of the lamb denotes the truth of the good of innocence, 7846. To shed blood denotes to offer violence to Divine Truth from Good: shown, 9127. What the Lord's blood shed with water signifies, 9127:6. Blood sprinkled upon the altar round about, and on the foundation of the altar, signifies the union of the Divine Truth with the Divine Good in the Lord, 10047. What is meant by the Lord redeeming man by means of His blood, in the external, internal, and inmost sense; that it means this, that He subjugated the hells, and restored all things to order in heaven, and that otherwise man could not be saved, 10152:2; that this was done through His Divine Human: shown, 10152:5.

Blue (caeruleum or caeruleum). The angels of the planet Jupiter are clothed in blue, and blue is loved by them, 8030. Blue is twofold, from red, or flame colour, and from white, or a lucid colour; that which is from red, or flame colour, is the celestial hove of truth, or the external of the good of the Celestial Kingdom, but that which is from white, or a lucid colour, is the spiritual love of good, or the internal good of the Spiritual Kingdom, 9868, 9870.

[Bluish Purple. See PURPLE.]

Body (corpus). See FLESH throughout. What is meant by to be withdrawn from the body, or not to know whether one is in the body or out of the body, 1883. That man does not rise again in the body, but immediately after death, and then he is in a body: illustrated, 5078. The state of man's body in the other life, as to its quality, 5079.

A man is regenerated so that external things may render obedience to internal, 911, 913. Concerning spirits who appear as corporeal; they are those who regard themselves in all and everything, 4221. The corporeal degree regarded in itself is the receptacle of sensations, thus also, together with them, it is a corporeal living thing, 5077. The corporeal life of a man appears to spirits as a black mass, but that of those who are in faith, as woody; from experience, 5865. There are spirits who appear with a gross body; they are those who have altogether persuaded themselves against the Divine, and so closed their interiors, 5991. Worldly and corporeal concerns destroy heavenly ideas; from experience, 6309. Concerning corporeal spirits, 6318.

The soul is the esse of man's life, the body is the existere therefrom, 10823. There is a likeness of the soul and body in everything with man, 1910. All things that are in the body represent the spiritual things that are in the Lord's kingdom, 2996, 2998. See REPRESENTATIONS. There is a correspondence of the gestures with the affections of the mind, 7596. Those things pertaining to man which pass from thought to speech, and from the will into act, thus into the body, flow according to a general influx by means of correspondences, 5862. The corporeal things of man are ruled from the general influx, 5990. There is a general influx into the actions and speech of the body, 6192, 6211. The thoughts and speech of the angels are circumstanced as the interior things in the body are, as compared with the external form of the body, 3347.

Body denotes the good of love: illustrated and shown, 6135:2; the receptacle of good, 6135. To come in the body, when said of servants, denotes with truth, but without delight, 8977. 8978, 8984. From the head through the neck into the body corresponds to the influx of the Celestial Kingdom into the Spiritual, 9913, 9914.

Body-Guard (satelles). Chief of the body-guards denotes the primary things of interpretation, 4790, 4966, 5084.

Boil (ulcus). See WOUND [and BLAIN.]

Boil, To (coquere). Boiled with water denotes that which goes forth from the truth of faith: shown, 7857. To boil and seethe on the sixth day for the Sabbath denotes preparation for conjunction, 8496. To boil stands for the conjunction of good, and to seethe, for the conjunction of truth: shown, 8496. To boil flesh denotes to prepare for the use of life: shown, 10105. Pot denotes doctrine: shown, 10105.

Bond (vinculum). See CONSCIENCE. Those who are without conscience are ruled only by external bonds, 1077:2, 1080, 1835. These bonds become nothing in the other life, however one has lived according to them, 1835. What external bonds are, and that they are taken away in the other life, 1944:2; and when they are taken away the interiors rage against innocence, 2126. All affections are bonds, and they are external and internal, 3835. Unless the Lord ruled the evil by means of external bonds, they would all become insane, and the human race would perish, 4217:3. Those who are in external bonds can perform the more eminent duties well, and they denotes good deeds from those bonds; concerning whom, 6207:2.

Bonds denotes loves; internal bonds are the affections of truth and good, external bonds are the loves of self and the world, 9096. What the bands of the neck signifies, 3542:4. See NECK.

Bondage (servitus). See SERVANT.

Bone (os). Concerning those in the Grand Man who correspond to the bones, 5560-5564. Those who constitute the bones have little spiritual life, 5560, 5561. They are those who have been evil, but still have the remains of good after vastations, 5561; and because these are the bones, they have general, though almost indeterminate, thought, 5562. Pains are felt in various places of the skull occasioned by falsities from lusts; whence they are, 5563. Scientifics in spiritual things are as the bones in the body, 8005.

Bones denotes the intellectual proprium, thus the proprium as to truth, and, in the opposite sense, as to falsity: shown, 3812; the ultimate of the Church, thus they are representative; concerning which, 6592. By the rib, or bone, is signified the proprium, 147, 148, 149. What bone from bones, and flesh from flesh signifies, 157. My bone and my flesh denotes conjunction as to truths and goods, 3812, 3813. Not to break a bone of the paschal lamb denotes that the scientific shall be whole, 8005.

Book (liber). The Ancient Church had the Books of the Wars of Jehovah, and of the Enunciations of the Prophets, cited by Moses, 2686. The interior memory is the book of life, 2474; because in it are inscribed the things which belong to the will, 9386:2. The book of life denotes the internal, and those things which are said to be written there are from the Lord: illustrated and shown, 10505:3. To be blotted out of the book of life denotes to perish as to spiritual life, 10505, 10506. To write in a book denotes for remembrance: shown, 8620.

Border (limbus). [See also BOUNDARY.] Border denotes the termination from good lest they be assailed and injured by evils, 9492.

[Borders. See FRINGES.]

Born, To be (nasci). See BIRTH.

Born in the House (natus domus). What born in the house signifies,1708.

[Borrow, To. See MUTUAL.]

Bosom (sinus). [See also BREAST.] The quality of those who relate to the sinuses in the brain, and those who relate to the longitudinal sinus, 4048. The bosom denotes that which is one's own, thus the proprium, and appropriation by means of love: shown, 6960:2.

[Botany (botanica). In the vegetable kingdom on earth there is nothing that does not in some manner represent the Lord's kingdom, 1632. The celestial and spiritual things of the Lord flow into nature, and therefrom is the vegetative soul or life, 1632. A certain man skilled in botanical science, raised into paradisiacal scenes, saw shrubberies and lower gardens of immense extent, 4529. The green in the tree and in the herb of the field signifies the scientific and the sensual, 7691.]

Bound (vinctus). See PRISON and PIT. What is signified by the bound in prison: shown, 5037. To be bound denotes to be separated, 5452. The bound in the pit denotes the spiritual ones who before the Lord's coming were detained in the lower earth, and afterwards were elevated into heaven: shown, 6854.

Boundary (terminus). In every boundary denotes as far as truth which is from good extends itself, 8063. To enlarge the boundary denotes the multiplication and extension of truth from good, 10675.

Bow (arcus). Bow denotes the doctrine of truth: shown, 2686. A shooter with the bow, and darts, and arrows or javelins denotes doctrine, also, in the opposite sense, [falsity,] 2686, 2709. The shooter with the bow denotes the spiritual man, 2686; the man of the spiritual Church, 2709; the spiritual man, and, in the opposite sense, those who fight against him, 6422. To be slain with javelins denotes to perish as to spiritual good, 8800.

Bow Oneself, To (curvare se). To bow oneself, when it is predicated respecting a lion, denotes to put oneself in power, 6369.

Bow Oneself Down, To (incurvare se). To bow oneself down denotes the effect of humiliation, 2153; also to rejoice, 2927, 2950; adoration, 4689. To bend oneself denotes to be glad; and to bow oneself down denotes to rejoice. Bending down denotes exterior humiliation, and of those who are of truth; bowing down denotes interior humiliation, and of those who are of good, 5682, 7068. To bow oneself down with the face to the earth denotes humiliation, 6266. To bow oneself down, when spoken of the evil, denotes respect from fear, 7788. He bowed himself down denotes insertion for conjunction, 8663. To bow oneself from afar off denotes humiliation and adoration at heart, and then influx of the Lord, 9377.

Bowels (viscera). What is signified by the bowels and by going forth from the bowels, 1803. To come forth from the womb, and from the loins is predicated of good; but to be separated from the bowels, of truth, 3294. Concerning the correspondence of the viscera with the Grand Man, 5171-5189.

Bowl (schyphus). Bowl denotes the truth of faith which is from the good of charity, and, in the opposite sense, falsity by means of what is evil, and also falsity from evil: shown, 5120:2; that which is interiorly true, 5736. Bowl or goblet denotes the sensual scientific, and is predicated of truth, but a basket denotes the sensual delight, and is predicated of good, 9996:2. Almond-shaped bowls denotes scientifics from good, 9557.

Bowls (crateres). See VESSEL.

Boy (puer). See INFANT. The education of boys on the earth is very bad; an experience of boys fighting, to which they are incited by parents, 2309.

Boy denotes innocence and charity: shown, 430; innocence,-properly guiltless: shown, 5236; the first age of the Church, 4672. Boys signify various things, here the rational, 2782; and the Divine Rational in a certain state, 2793; the simple, when they are adjoined to old men, 7661.

Bracelets (armillae). Nose-rings and bracelets were given to brides, the former to be put on the nose, the latter on the hand; and by the nose-ring is signified good, by the bracelets, truth, and by the bride, the Church, 3103, 3105. A bracelet on the king's arm is a significative of truth from which is power, 3105.

Brain (cerebrum, cerebellum). The operation of heaven into the brain observed; and that the left part of the brain is for rational or intellectual things, 3884. Concerning the Grand Man, and the correspondence with the cerebrum and the cerebellum, 4039-4055. All things of the brain are according to the heavenly form, 4040-4042. The circumvolutions in the brain are according to that form, 4041. Thus by means of man there is descent from heaven into the world, and ascent from the world to heaven, 4042. In the heavens there are heavens and societies which relate to the cerebrum and the cerebellum both as a whole and in part, 4045. The quality of those who relate to the dura mater, 4046. The quality of those who relate to the pia mater, 4047. The quality of those who relate to the sinuses and the longitudinal sinus, 4048. The quality of those who relate to the ventricles, 4049. The quality of those who relate to the infundibulum; and its representation, 4050. The quality of those who relate to the isthmus, and the knots of glands, 4051. They who are in the will of good, and are in good therefrom, relate to the cortical substances, and they who are in the understanding of truth, and in the affections therefrom, relate to the fibres, 4052. The right part of the brain stands for those who are in the will of good, and the left part of the brain stands for those who are in the understanding of truth, 4052. As in heaven there is a sphere of ends, which are uses, so in the brain; and there are societies which only have for their end the pleasures of friendship; respecting which, 4054. How the fibres of the cerebellum and the cerebrum have changed with respect to the face, 4326. Concerning those who relate to the viscid excrementitious matters of the brain; they enter into the chambers of the brain, even into the spinal marrow, and induce insanities and death; an experience, 5717; of what quality they are, and whence, 5717. Those who relate to the thick phlegm of the brain, 5718. See DISEASE. Concerning the viscid matters of the brain, in which there is something vital; the conscientious relate to them; respecting whom, 5724. The left part of the brain is for truths and falsities, the right part for good and evil, 5725. [See also 4052 above.] The inhabitants of Mars relate to the medium between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, 7480, 7481. The inhabitants who love cognitions, and not a life according to them, relate to the interior membrane of the skull, and they who are accustomed to speak without affection, and to substract thoughts from others, relate to that membrane made bony, 7748.

[Bramble (rhamnus). Bramble denotes spurious good, 9277:4.]

Bramble-Bush (rubus). Bramble-bush denotes scientific truth, 6832, 6833, 6834.

Branch (calamus). The branches of the lampstand denotes the truths from good, 9551, 9555, 9556.

[Branches. See SHOOTS.]

Brass (aes). Brass denotes natural good: shown, 425, 1551.

Breach (ruptura). Breach denotes falsity by reason of the separation of truth froni good, and the injury therefrom: shown, 4926, 9163e.

Bread (panis). See also BARLEY, CORN, DRINK, FLOUR, FOOD, MEAT-OFFERING, WATER, WHEAT. Bread means every kind of food in general: shown, 2165; also sacrificial things: shown, 2165. What the bread and wine in the Holy Supper are, 1798:3. When a man is in what is holy of the Holy Supper, there is a correspondence with angels, 3464, 3735. Why in the Catholic Religion bread only is given in the Holy Supper, end not wine, 10040:2. See SUPPER. As the case is with truth in relation to good, so also is water in relation to bread, or drink to food, in nourishment, 4976. Bread and water are spoken of when all the goods of love and truths of faith are sd.: shown, 9323.

Bread denotes the Lord's flesh, and this is His Divine Good: shown, 3813. See FLESH and SUPPER. Bread signifies the celestial and the spiritual, 276, 680, [681;] what nourishes the life of heaven; and in what manner also the life of hell: illustrated, 8410; the good of celestial love, 10686. What bread in the Holy Supper signifies is the Lord, thus all the celestial things of love, therefore to love celestial food, 2165:4, 2177:7. By bread in the Holy Supper, and in the Lord's Prayer, angels perceive the good of love, and the Lord, 3735:2. Bread in the Holy Supper S. the Lord, thence His love towards the human race, and the reciprocal love of man; concerning which, 4211, 4217:2, 4735. When bread means all kinds of good it denotes spiritual life, 6118. Breads upon the table in the Tabernacle represented celestial and spiritual love, and in that the Lord Himself, 3478. See To EAT, FEAST, and FOOD. The bread of faces upon the table denotes the Lord as to celestial good, 9545. The bread of sacrifices, see MEAT-OFFERING. The meat-offering, which was bread, and the drink-offering, which was wine, signified such things as belong to the Church, as also in the Holy Supper: illustrated, 10137. To break bread, 5405. See To BREAK. To eat bread in the sweat of the countenance denotes to be averse, 276. Not to eat bread and drink water throughout forty days and nights denotes a state of temptation, 10686. What to eat together in the Holy Supper signifies, 2187.

Breadth (latitudo). Breadths denotes truths, 3433, 3434. Breadth denotes truth: shown, 4482. Length denotes good, breadth denotes truth, 1613; shown, 9487; and illustrated by extensions in the heavens, 10179. What length, breadth, and height signifies, 650. Length, breadth, and height denotes good, truth, and what is holy therefrom, because they are extensions with respect to the Lord, who is the centre, 4482:3. A land broad of space denotes an extension of truth which pertains to the Church, 4482.

Break, To (frangere). To break bread was representative of mutual love in the Ancient Church: illustrated and shown, 5405. To be broken and a fracture denotes dissipation, as also the injury inflicted on truths and goods: shown, 9163.

Breast (pectus). Breast denotes the good of charity; in the supreme sense, the Divine Spiritual of the Lord, 10087. To recline on the breast, or in the bosom, denotes to be loved, 10087:2; and John reclined on the Lord's breast, because he was representing the works of charity, 10087. See WORKS.

[Breastplate. See HABERGEON.]

Breastplate, [The Priest's] (pectorale). See URIM.

Breasts (ubera). Breasts denotes the affections of good and truth:

illustrated and shown, 6432.

[Breath (spiraculum). See under INSPIRATION.

Breathe, To. See BREATHING and INSPIRATION.]

Breathing (respiratio). The breathing of the men of the Most Ancient Church was internal, as is that of the angels, the external was only tacit, 607:2, 805:2, 1118-1120. The most ancient people had an internal breathing, and they breathed according to their state of love and faith in the Lord, 97, 1119, 3892. It was succeeded by external breathing, and so by speech by means of words, 608, 805:3. In course of time it became external, and no internal breathing remained, 1120. Distinct choirs were perceived, who pertained to the voluntary respiration, and to the spontaneous respiration of the lungs, 3351. Of what quality the breathing of the Popes is, when they are in the Consistory, 3750:2. Concerning the Grand Man, and the correspondence of the heart and lungs, 3883-3886. See also HEART and LUNGS. The alternate pulses of the heart insinuate themselves into those of the lungs, 3884:3. There is breathing in heaven, 3884. Breathing observed in heaven, also the pulse of the heart, 3885. The respirations and pulses are manifold, according to the societies there, and their states of faith and love, 3886, 3887, 3892, 3893. There are two kingdoms in heaven, the Celestial and the Spiritual; the Celestial pertains to the province of the heart, and the Spiritual to the lungs, 3887. The influx of the Celestial Kingdom into the Spiritual is as that of the heart into the lungs, 3887. The heart and lungs rule in the whole body, and mutually flow in, 3887:2, 3889, 3890. The heart corresponds to the will, breathing, to the understanding, 3888. Concerning the correspondence of the heart with those things which belong to love, and of the lungs with those which belong to faith, 3889. An experience respecting the breathing of heaven, 3891, 3893. They who are dedicated to the voluntary respiration are distinct from those who are dedicated to the involuntary, 3893. The evil cannot breathe in heaven, but as it were suffocate, 3894. The well-disposed are inaugurated into the breathings of heaven, 3894a. The persuasive, in the other life, suffocates; an experience concerning it, 3895. See PERSUASION. The breathing of the inhabitants of Mars is internal; something respecting it, 7362.

Breathing being made denotes what was undelightful and wearisome ceased, 7411. The Lord breathed into the disciples, and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit,' is explained; that inspiration denotes the life of faith, 9229. To breathe denotes the state of the life of faith, and therefrom the soul and spirit, 9281. What to breathe into the nostrils signifies, 96, 97. See INSPIRATION.

Breeches of Linen (femoralia lini). Breeches of linen denotes the external of conjugial love: illustrated and shown, 9959; also protection from the hells, 9962.

Brick (later). Bricks denotes falsities which they framed, 1296; and clay denotes the evil which they invented, 6669; the fictitious and false things which are injected by the evil, 7113.

Bride, Bridegroom (sponsa, sponsus). See HUSBAND, MAN, WIFE, WOMAN. The Lord is called the Bridegroom from love, which flows in from Him, 3207. Bridegroom denotes the representative of the Church with the posterity of Jacob, 7047; good, and the bride denotes truth: shown, 9182:5.

A bride represented the Church, and therefore a nose-ring and bracelets were given to her; concerning which, 3103, 3105. The Church was compared to a bride, and in ancient time brides were given vessels of silver, and of gold, and garments, to signify truth, good, and their adornment, which belong to the Church, 3164, 3165.

The veil, with which brides covered the face, when they first saw the bridgeroom, denotes the appearances of truth, 3207. To be betrothed denotes agreement, and therefrom conjunction, 8996. Betrothal denotes the first conjunction, which is of the internal man without the external, marriage denotes the conjunction of the external also: shown, 9182.

[Brier (senticetum). Briers and thorns denotes falsity and lust, 2831:9. See THORN. Thorn and brier denotes falsities and evils therefrom, 9144:6. A pricking brier denotes the falsity of the concupiscences of self-love; and a grieving thorn denotes the falsity of the concupiscences of the love of the world, 9144:6.

Brimstone (sulphur). What brimstone signifies, 1299. Brimstone signifies the hell and the devastation of the evils of the love of self, 2446. The fire of brimstone denotes falsity from the love of self, 2446.

[Bring, To. See To CARRY.]

Bring Forth, To, Bearing (parere, partus). Bearing and conception stand for the thoughts and the fashion of the heart, 264. Spiritual conceptions and bearing are the things which are sd., 3860, 3868. The things that pertain to bearing signify those that belong to regeneration: shown, 9325. To bring forth denotes to exist, 2621, 2629; to acknowledge in faith and in act, 3905, 3915, 3919. To bear upon the knees denotes to acknowledge for one a own, 6585. Bearing and to bring forth stand for fertility in doctrinal matters, 2584. See also BIRTH, GENERATION. The fruit of the belly denotes acknowledgment, and also conjunction, 3911. To conceive denotes to receive; to bring forth denotes to acknowledge, 3919. The pain of one in labour is the greatest pain, and it denotes despair: shown, 8313:2. Abortion denotes when truths and goods do not succeed in their order, 9325.

[Broad. See BREADTH.]

Brother (frater). They were called brethren in the Church from good, but this was changed when doctrine succeeded to the place of life, 3803. They who are in charity are in conjunction with the Lord, and are called brethren, 4191. They are called brethren who are in truths from good; they are also called brethren by the Lord, 5409. All are called brethren by the Lord who have anything of the good of charity from Him, 5686, 5692. Formerly brethren were so called from spiritual affinity, but not so afterwards; why, 6756. Why the Lord called those brethren who were in good, 6756:5. They were called brethren, because they were from Jacob, others were called companions: shown, 6756:5. They who are together in one society, in the other life, are in fraternity, 4121.

Charity is the brother of faith, 367. The internal and external Church are brothers, the First and Second Ancient Church also, 1222. The good of the rational is the brother; truth, the sister, 2508e, 2524, 2556. The brother is so called from good, he is also the neighbour, 2360. Brother denotes good, also truth, 3303; a blood-relation by virtue of good, 3815. Brothers denotes goods, 4121. Good is relatively the lord, and truth, the servant; and they are also brothers, 4267. Brothers denotes the truths of the Church, 6756.

The affection of good and the affection of truth in the natural man are situated as brother and sister; but the affection of truth called forth from the natural man into the rational is as a married woman, 3160. Man with brother denotes the good of truth, 3459. To set before thy brethren and my brethren, that they may judge, denotes judgment from what is just and fair, 4167. A man to a brother denotes mutually, 4725. The conjunction of good and truth is represented by two married partners, and by two brothers, but with a difference; concerning which, 9806:2. By father, mother, brothers, children, and many names of relationship, are signified goods, and truths, also evils and falsities: shown, 10490. Brother and companion denotes good and truth, 10490.

[Brother-in-Law. See HUSBAND'S BROTHER.

Bruchus. See LOCUST.

Bruise. See under WOUND.]

Bruise, To (tundere). To bruise and to grind denotes the disposition of truths in series, and to prepare good, so that it can be applied to uses: shown, 10303. See TO GRIND.

[Brutes (bruta). Man, from his proprium and hereditary nature, is much worse than the brute animals,637:2, 3175. Why brute animals, dying, live no more, 5114:5. Some are inwardly brute animals, although they appear as men externally, 6318. Brutes act through their loves, and the affections thereof, 6323:2.]

Build, To (aedificare). To build denotes to raise up that which is fallen, 153. What to build a house signifies, 1488. To build denotes the increase of good from truth, 4390. To be built, when it relates to offspring, denotes to live, 3916.

Bullock (juvencus). See CALF and Ox.

Bulrush (juncus). Bulrush denotes what is mean, but still is derived from truth; and in the opposite sense. 6723.

Bundle (fasciculus). Truths with man are arranged in series, and these are signified by sheaves and bundles in the Word: shown only by references cited, 10303. See also SHEAF. Scientifics and truths in man are arranged bundlewise: illustrated, 5881. Those things which are in minds are arranged bundlewise: illustrated, 7408. Bundles denotes doctrinals, 4686, 4687; series of things in minds, 5339; series in which truths are arranged, also bindings together, 5530. See also GATHERINGS and SERIES.

Burden (onus). Burdens denotes bond-services, 6660; infestations by falsities, 6757; combats, 7104; spiritual combats, 7105.

[Burial. See To BURY.]

Burn. To (adolere). See FIRE.

Burnt-Offering (holocaustum). See SACRIFICE.

Bury, To, Burial, Sepulchre (sepelire, sepultura, sepulchrum). I have spoken with those who were buried, 4622:4. To bury denotes rejection, 6246; also that the state of representation was taken up by another, 3256. To be buried denotes rejected, 4564; to rise again, 4621; the renewal of the Church, 6522; regeneration, also resurrection, resuscitation, and renewal, because similar things are involved, 6554. To be buried in a good old age; what it signifies 1854. That Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried in the land of Canaan signifies regeneration and resurrection, because the Church was there, 6516. Sepulchre signifies resurrection and regeneration, and, in the opposite sense, damnation: shown, 2916, 2917; resuscitation; the reason; whence, 5551. To go down to the sepulchre mourning denotes to die, 4785. To cause to go down in evil and sorrow to the grave denotes to perish, 5832.

Bush (virgultum). See TREE.

Butler (pincerna.) Butler denotes sensual things subordinate and subject to the intellectual part, 5077, 5082.

[Butter (butyrum). Butter denotes the celestial, 2183; the celestial rational, 2184; celestial good; and honey denotes what is happy, pleasant, and delightful, which are from celestial good, 5620:3. See also HONEY.]

Butterfly (papilio). See WORM and INSECT. A comparison of the state of the blessed, after death, with the state of butterflies, 3000. A comparison of the conjugial state with the same, 2758. A representation of the state of spirits, in their world, when they are preparing for heaven, by the changes of small worms into butterflies; respecting which; then they are in their own heaven, 8848.

Buy, To (emere). To buy denotes to appropriate, 4397; shown, 5374, 5406, 5410, 5426; redemption, 6458, 6461. Acquisition denotes the good of truth, and purchase denotes truth, 4487. See also SILVER. What the purchase of silver signifies, 7999. See SILVER. Bought with silver denotes what is acquired in the natural by the spiritual, 7999e.

[Buz (Bus or Buz). Uz and Buz denotes various religious systems, 2860, 2864.

By-Path. See WAY.]

  
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Arcana Coelestia #1643

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1643. The speech of angelic spirits is beyond comprehension, so that the reference to it here is brief, and only to that form of it which is representative. The thing itself which they are discussing is manifested representatively in a wonderful form that takes shape independent of sensory objects, and is varied in countless ways by means of most delightful and beautiful representatives, accompanied by a constant influx of affections from the happy stream of mutual love flowing from the Lord by way of the higher heaven, from which influx every single thing so to speak is made living. Every thing they discuss is manifested in this manner, and by means of continuous series of representatives. Not one in any series can possibly be described intelligibly. These are the things that flow into the spirits' ideas, but to them are not apparent except as something general flowing in and affecting them. They do not have any clear perception of the things which are clearly perceived by angelic spirits.

  
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Arcana Coelestia #2588

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2588. 'Abraham's wife' means, in order that spiritual truth might be joined to celestial good. This is clear from the representation of 'Sarah when a wife' as spiritual truth joined to celestial good, dealt with in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507, and from the representation of 'Abraham' as celestial good joined to spiritual truth, dealt with in 2010, 2172, 2198, 2501. Whether you say spiritual truth and celestial good, or whether you say the Lord, it amounts to the same, for the Lord is truth itself and good itself, and also the marriage itself of truth and good and of good and truth. These matters may indeed be seen from the explanation given, yet as they belong among those things that are obscure at the present day, let them be illustrated so far as possible. The subject here is the doctrine of faith, about which doctrine the Lord thought when He was a boy; that is to say, He gave thought to whether it was permissible to enter into that doctrine by means of rational conceptions and in that way form ideas for Himself regarding it. This way of thinking was a product of His love and concern for the human race, who are such that they do not believe anything which is not grasped in a rational manner by them. But He perceived from the Divine that one ought not to enter into doctrine that way, and therefore He revealed such doctrine to Himself from the Divine and at the same time also all things in the universe that are subordinate to it, that is, all things of a rational kind, and all those of a natural kind.

[2] People's attitudes to matters of doctrine regarding faith have been spoken of above in 2568. There it was stated that there are two basic attitudes of mind from which people think, the negative and the affirmative; also that they think from a negative attitude who believe nothing unless they are convinced by rational considerations and by facts, and indeed by sensory evidence, whereas those people think from an affirmative attitude who believe that things are true because the Lord has said so in the Word and who thus have faith in the Lord. People who adopt the negative attitude towards the truth of anything in the Word say in their hearts that they are willing to believe when persuaded on rational grounds and by facts. But these are such as never believe, not even indeed if they were convinced by means of the evidence of their own physical senses of seeing, hearing, and touch; for they would always be producing new reasonings against such things, and in so doing they would at length completely destroy all faith and at the same time would turn the light of the rational into darkness, because they would turn it into falsities. People however who adopt the affirmative attitude, that is, who believe that things are true because the Lord has said so, are being confirmed all the time by rational considerations and by facts, and even by sensory evidence, and their ideas are being enlightened and are strengthened by these; for light comes to man through no other channel than the rational ideas and the factual knowledge which he possesses. This is so with everyone. With those who have the affirmative attitude of mind doctrine is certainly living, and of them it is said that they are healed and give birth. But with those who have the negative attitude doctrine certainly dies, and of them it is said that the womb is completely closed. All this shows what it is to enter the doctrine of faith by means of rational ideas, and what it is to enter into rational ideas from the doctrine of faith.

[3] Let these differences be illustrated by examples: The Word teaches that the first and foremost matter of doctrine is love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. People with the affirmative attitude towards this are able to enter into whatever things of a rational, factual, and indeed sensory kind they please, each according to his ability, knowledge, and experience. Indeed the more they do so the more they are confirmed, for the whole natural order is full of what is confirmatory. But people who deny this first and foremost teaching, and who wish first of all to be convinced by means of factual and rational considerations that a thing is true, never allow themselves to be convinced because they deny in their hearts and are all the time taking their stand on some other basic idea which they believe to be essential. In the end through confirmations of that idea these people so blind themselves that they cannot even know what love to the Lord is and what love towards the neighbour is. And because they confirm themselves in notions contrary to such love they at length also confirm themselves in the idea that no other kind of love can exist that has any delight in it except self-love and love of the world. And this they do to such an extent - if not in doctrine yet in the lives they lead - that they embrace hellish love in place of heavenly love.

[4] But with those who as yet have adopted neither a negative attitude nor an affirmative one but are in a state of doubt that precedes either of these, the position has been stated above in 2568. There it was shown that those who incline towards a life of evil fall into the negative attitude, whereas those who incline towards a life good are brought into the affirmative one. Take a different example: One of the leading ideas of the doctrine of faith is that all good comes from the Lord and all evil from man or self. People with the affirmative attitude that this is so are able to confirm themselves by many rational ideas, and by facts, such as that no good can possibly flow in except from Good itself, that is, from the fountain of good, and so from the Lord, and that good cannot have its first beginnings anywhere else. Such people find these ideas enlightened for them by all things which are truly good within themselves, within others, within society in general, and indeed within the whole of creation. But people with the negative attitude confirm themselves by everything they can possibly think of in ideas to the contrary, so much so that at length they do not know what good is. And disputing among themselves as to what the highest good is, they are profoundly ignorant of the fact that it is by means of celestial and spiritual good from the Lord that every type of good beneath it is made living, and that the delight flowing from it is truly delight. Some also imagine that if good does not come from themselves it cannot possibly come from any other source.

[5] Take another example: Those who are governed by love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are able to receive the truths of doctrine and to have faith in the Word, but not so those leading a life of self-love and love of the world. Or what amounts to the same, those governed by good are able to believe but not those governed by evil. People with the affirmative attitude of mind are able to confirm this in countless ways - with rational ideas and factual knowledge. With rational ideas they are able to confirm that truth is compatible with good but not with evil, and that as all falsity resides in evil it is also the product of evil, and that if any people governed by evil nevertheless possess any truth, this is on their lips, not in their heart. And with factual knowledge they are able to confirm from many points of view that truths put evils to flight and that evils detest truths. But people with the negative attitude confirm themselves in the idea that everyone, irrespective of what he is like in character - even if he leads a life for ever hating, taking delight in revenge, and practicing deceit - is able to believe as others are able to do so. Yet while holding to this idea they themselves totally reject goodness of life from doctrine, and having rejected it believe nothing whatever.

[6] To make the matter plainer still, take yet another example: Those who adopt the affirmative attitude that the Word has been written in such a way as to have an internal sense that is not apparent in the letter are also able in many ways to confirm themselves through rational considerations, such as the following,

By means of the Word man has a link with heaven.

Correspondences exist of natural things with spiritual, though the spiritual are not very apparent.

The ideas which belong to interior thought are completely different from the material ideas which fall into the words of spoken language. While man is in the world he is able to be in heaven (for he has been born for life in both places) through the Word which is intended for both places.

With some people a certain Divine light flows into the things of the understanding and into the affections when the Word is being read.

It is necessary that something be written which has come down from heaven and thus that the nature of its existence in its origins cannot be the same as its existence in the letter.

It cannot be holy except from a certain holiness which it has within it.

A person with the affirmative attitude is also able to confirm himself by means of certain facts, such as the following,

In former times people were living in an age of representatives. The writings of the Ancient Church contained such representatives, and those of many authors among the gentiles were composed of them, so that in the Churches that style of writing was regarded as being holy, and among the gentiles as being learned (books by many of those authors could also be mentioned).

But people who adopt the negative attitude, though they do not deny all these considerations and facts, nevertheless do not believe them. They persuade themselves that the Word is such as it exists in the letter, where indeed it presents a worldly appearance, but is nevertheless spiritual. They do not have any interest however in where that spiritual element lies, but for a multitude of reasons still want it. And that of which they are persuaded they are able to confirm in many ways.

[7] To present this matter in a way that can be grasped by ordinary people, let the following known fact serve as an example: Those with the affirmative attitude that sight does not belong to the eye but to the spirit which sees objects in the world by means of the eye as an organ of its own body can find confirmation of this fact in many ways. For instance, those people may find confirmation of it in their hearing of words spoken by another, in that these spoken words ally themselves to a certain interior sight, into which those words are converted - something that could not possibly occur but for the existence of that interior sight. These people may also find confirmation of the same in the consideration that whatever they think about is seen with an interior sight, by some more clearly and by others more obscurely, as well as in the consideration that the things produced by their imagination are not unlike actual objects of sight. They may find a further confirmation in the consideration that unless it were the spirit within the body that saw the things taken in by the eye as the organ of sight, the spirit would be unable to see anything in the next life, when in fact it is destined to behold countless and astonishing sights which the eye of the body cannot possibly see. In addition confirmation may be found by these people by reflecting on how in dreams, especially those of the prophets, many things have likewise been seen, yet not with the eyes. Finally, if trained in philosophy, a person may find confirmation in the consideration that things which are more exterior cannot enter into those that are more interior, just as that which is compound cannot enter into that which is simple, so that things of the body cannot enter into those of the spirit; only the reverse is possible. Besides these many other confirmations might be introduced, till at length a person is persuaded that sight belongs to the spirit, and not to the eye except from the spirit. But people with the negative attitude either speak of everything of this kind as that which is natural and physical, or else they speak of it as that which is imaginary. And when they are told that a spirit possesses and enjoys far more perfect sight than man does in the body, they laugh at the idea and dismiss it as nonsense, for they believe that they will be living in darkness when they are deprived of the sight of the eye. But in fact quite the reverse is the case in that they then dwell in the light.

[8] These examples show what it is to enter into things of a rational and factual nature from truths, and what it is to enter into truths from things of a factual and rational nature. The first method of approach is according to order, but the second is contrary to it; and when a person acts according to order he is enlightened, but when he acts contrary to order he is made blind. This makes plain how important it is for people to know and believe truths, for truths enlighten man, but falsities make him blind. Truths open up to the rational a vast and practically unlimited field, whereas falsities provide scarcely any such opening up at all, though this is not very evident. The reason why angels have so much wisdom is that they are enveloped in truths, truth being the light itself of heaven.

[9] Those who have made themselves blind through refusing to believe anything which they do not perceive with the physical senses, till at length they have no belief at all, were in former times called 'serpents belonging to the tree of knowledge'. For they reasoned much from things as perceived by the senses and from the resulting illusions which man accepts and believes all too easily, and by such reasoning they led very many astray, see 195, 196. In the next life they are easily distinguished from other spirits by the fact that in everything which is a matter of faith they reason whether it is so. And if it is demonstrated to them a thousand times, and then another thousand, that it is so they still advance doubts of a negative kind against every confirmation that is offered, and this they would go on doing for ever. They are so blinded therefore that they are lacking in common sense, that is, they are unable to grasp what good and truth are. Yet every one of them imagines that he is wiser than anyone else in the whole universe, making wisdom consist in being able to dispose of what is Divine and to derive the origin of things from what is natural. Many who have been considered wise men in the world are pre-eminently such as these; for the more anyone with the negative attitude of mind possesses talent and knowledge, the more insane he is, more so than all others. But the more anyone with the affirmative attitude possesses talent and knowledge the wiser he is able to become. One is not by any means forbidden to develop the rational by means of factual knowledge, but one is not allowed to use it to harden oneself against the truths of faith which belong to the Word.

[10] Much concerning these matters occurs in the internal sense of the Word, especially in prophetical sections, where the subject is Asshur and Egypt, for 'Asshur' means reasoning, 119, 1186, and 'Egypt' knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462.

People who wish to enter into matters of doctrine regarding faith and into Divine things by means of things of a factual and of a rational nature, and who are consequently of unsound mind, are referred to in Isaiah as follows,

I will confound Egypt within Egypt, and they will fight every one against his brother, and every one against his companion, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt will be emptied out in the midst of it, and I will swallow up his plans. The waters from the sea will fail, and the river will be parched and dry; and the streams will depart, and the rivers of Egypt will diminish and become parched. Reed and rush will wither away. Every seed of the river will be dry. Jehovah has mingled in the midst of her a spirit of perversity, and they have made Egypt err in all its work, as a drunken man errs in his vomit. Isaiah 19:2-3, 5-7, 14.

In the same prophet,

Woe to the rebellious children, who depart to go down into Egypt but have not asked at My mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. And the strength of Pharaoh will be shame for you, and trust in the shadow of Egypt ignominy. Isaiah 30:1-3.

In the same prophet,

Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help and rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel and do not seek Jehovah. And Jehovah will stretch out His hand; he who gives help will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all be destroyed together. And Asshur will fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, will devour him. Isaiah 31:1, 3, 8.

In Jeremiah,

My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hollow out pits for themselves, broken pits which do not hold water. Is not Israel a slave? If he is a home-born [servant], why has he become a prey? Are you not bringing this on yourself by forsaking Jehovah your God at a time when He is leading you in the way? And now, what have you to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor, or what have you to do with the way to Asshur, to drink the waters of the River? O generation, see the Word of Jehovah! Have I been a wilderness for Israel? or a land of darkness? For what reason have My people said, We will be our own masters, we will not come to You any more? Why do you go off so forcefully to change your way? You will also be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Asshur. Jeremiah 2:13-14, 17-18, 31, 36.

In the same prophet,

Hear the word of Jehovah, O remnants of Judah, Thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel, If you surely set your faces to come into Egypt, and you enter to sojourn there, then it will be, that the sword of which you are afraid will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are terrified will cleave to you there in Egypt, so that you die there. And all the men (vir) who have set their faces to come into Egypt to sojourn there will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, and none of them will survive or escape from before the evil which I am bringing over you. Jeremiah 42:15-17, and following verses.

In Ezekiel,

And let all the inhabitants of Egypt know that I am Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they grasp you with the hand, you will be broken, and you will tear for them every shoulder; and when they lean on you you will be broken, and you will make all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am bringing a sword over you, and I will cause man and beast to be cut off from you; and the land of Egypt will be a desolation and a waste, and they will know that I am Jehovah, for [Egypt] has said, The river is mine, and I made it. Ezekiel 29:6-9, and following verses.

In Hosea,

Ephraim was like a silly dove. They called on Egypt, they went away to Asshur. When they go I will stretch My net over them. Woe to them, for they have strayed away from Me! Hosea 7:11-13.

In the same prophet,

Ephraim feeds the wind, and pursues the east wind. All the day long he multiplies lies and devastation and they make a covenant with Asshur, and oil is carried down into Egypt. Hosea 12:1.

In the same prophet,

Israel has committed whoredom beneath its God. You have taken delight in hiring yourself out on every threshing-floor. Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Asshur they will eat what is unclean. For behold, they have gone away on account of the devastation, Egypt will gather them, Moph 1 will bury them; the nettle will possess their precious things of silver, the thorn will be in their tents. Ephraim has been stricken, their root has dried up, they will bear no fruit. Even when they bring forth I will slay the beloved fruits of their womb. My God will cast them away because they have not hearkened to Him, and they will be wanderers among the nations. Hosea 9:1, 3, 6, 16-17.

In Isaiah,

Woe to Asshur, the rod of My anger, and he is the staff, in their hand, of My indignation! He does not think what is right and his heart does not consider what is right, for it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few, for he says, Are not my princes at the same time kings? I will visit upon the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Asshur, for he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have intelligence, and I will remove the boundaries of peoples and will plunder their treasures, and as a powerful man will cast down the inhabitants. Therefore the Lord, the Lord Zebaoth, will send leanness among his fat ones, and instead of his glory a burning of fire will be kindled. Isaiah 10:5, 7-8, 12-13, 16.

[11] In all these places 'Asshur' means reasoning, as has been shown, 'Egypt' and 'pharaoh' mean knowledge, and 'Ephraim' the understanding part of the mind. These and many other places elsewhere describe what man's rational comes to be like when he reasons about the truths of faith from the negative attitude of mind. Similar teaching is embodied in the incidents recorded in Isaiah 36, 37, when the Rabshakeh was sent from the king of Asshur and spoke out against Jerusalem and king Hezekiah, and the angel of Jehovah at that time struck down in the camp of the king of Asshur one hundred and eighty-five thousands. Those descriptions mean the disarray into which all that constitutes man's rationality is thrown when he reasons against Divine things, however much he may seem to himself at that time to be wise.

[12] Such reasoning is also referred to in various places as 'whoredom committed with the sons of Egypt and with the sons of Asshur', as in Ezekiel,

You committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, great in flesh, and multiplied your whoredom. And you committed whoredom with the sons of Asshur, and were still not satisfied. Ezekiel 16:26, 28; 23:3, 5-21.

See 2466.

[13] People however who enter into things of a rational and factual kind from the doctrine of faith and by so doing are made wise are referred to in Isaiah as follows,

On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Jehovah at its border; and it will be for a sign and a witness to Jehovah Zebaoth in the land of Egypt, for they will cry out to Jehovah because of the oppressors, and He will send a saviour and prince to them, and He will deliver them. And Jehovah will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah on that day and will offer sacrifice and minchah, and will make a vow to Jehovah and perform it. Isaiah 19:18-21.

In the same chapter,

On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur will come into Egypt, and the Egyptians will serve Asshur. 2 On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom Jehovah Zebaoth will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Asshur the work of My hands, and Israel My heritage. Isaiah 19:23-25.

This is referring to the spiritual Church, of which Israel is the spiritual element, Asshur the rational, and Egypt the factual. These three constitute all the intellectual powers of that Church, which come in that order one after another. This explains why it is said, 'On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Asshur', and 'blessed be Egypt My people, Asshur the work of My hands, and Israel My heritage'.

[14] In the same prophet,

It will be on that day, that a great trumpet will be blown, and they will come - those who are perishing in the land of Asshur, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt - and they will bow themselves down to Jehovah on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:13.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, The labour of Egypt, and the wares of Cush and of the Sabaeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours. They will follow after you and bow down to you. To you they will make the supplication, God is with you only; and there is no other besides God. Isaiah 45:14.

'Cush and the Sabaeans' are cognitions, 117, 1171. In Zechariah,

Egypt will go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah Zebaoth. Zechariah 14:17-18.

In Micah,

As for me, I look to Jehovah, I wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. The day for building your walls, this is the day; and they will come even to you from Asshur and the cities of Egypt even to the River. Micah 7:7, 11-12.

[15] In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples among whom they were scattered, and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt. Ezekiel 29:13-14.

In the same prophet,

Behold, Asshur was a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in its branches, and a shady forest, and lofty in height, and its trunk among entangled boughs. The waters caused it to grow, with its streams going around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. Therefore its height was made higher than all the trees of the field, and its branches were multiplied, and its branches were made long by many waters. In its branches all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field gave birth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. And it became beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was in many waters. The cedars did not hide it in the garden of God, the fir trees were not equal to its branches. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in its beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God envied it. Ezekiel 31:3-9.

Here the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, is described as to the nature of its rational and so of its wisdom and intelligence, for that Church used to look at things below from those which were Divine. Thus it looked at truths from goods themselves, and then from truths at what was subsidiary to these. By 'Asshur' and 'a cedar' are meant the rational, by 'entangled boughs among which were its branches' is meant factual knowledge, by 'streams' and 'waters' are meant spiritual goods, among which was its 'root', by 'the height and the length of the branches' the extent of it, by 'the garden of God' the spiritual Church, and by 'the trees of Eden' perceptions. This and the other places quoted above show what man's rational is like and what his factual knowledge is like when they are subordinate to Divine truths and serve these by confirming them.

[16] The fact that things of a rational and factual kind serve people who have the affirmative attitude of mind as a means for making them wise was represented and meant by the command to the children of Israel to seek from the Egyptians the loan of vessels of gold and vessels of silver, and clothing, Exodus 3:22; 11:2; 12:35-36. Something similar is meant by what is said in various places in the Word about their possessing the goods, houses, vineyards, and olive-groves, and many other things, of the nations, and also by references to the very gold and silver itself seized from the nations becoming holy, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she will return to hiring herself out as a harlot, and will commit whoredom with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the ground. And its merchandise and its harlot's hire will become holy to Jehovah; it will not be stored or hoarded, for its merchandise will be for them that dwell before Jehovah to eat to satisfaction and for ancient clothing. Isaiah 23:17-18.

'The merchandise of Tyre' stands for cognitions, 1201, which to those with the negative attitude of mind are like 'a harlot's hire' but to those with the affirmative attitude are like that which is holy. Something similar is also meant by the Lord's words,

Make friends for yourselves out of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail they may receive you into eternal habitations. If then you have not appeared faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true? Luke 16:9, 11.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. Memphis.

2. The Hebrew of this text in Isaiah may be read in two different ways - serve Asshur or serve with Asshur. Most English versions of Isaiah prefer the second of these.

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