4737. But lay no hand upon him. That this signifies that they should not do violence to it, is evident without explication.

161. "'Remember therefore how you have received and heard.'" (3:3) This symbolically means that it should occur to them that all worship in its beginning is natural, and later becomes spiritual through truths from the Word and by a life according to them, and so on.

This is what is these words mean. They also mean that from the Word, from the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and from sermons, everyone knows that truths must be learned, and that it is through truths that a person has faith and charity and everything else having to do with the church.

[2] The reality of this is something we showed many times in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), which we published in London. See, for example, the following:

That faith is acquired through truths, nos. 4353 4977, 7178, 10367.

That love for the neighbor or charity is acquired through truths, nos. 4368 7623, 7624, 8034.

That love toward the Lord is acquired through truths, nos. nos. 10143 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645.

That intelligence and wisdom are acquired through truths, nos. 3182 3190, 3387, 10064.

That regeneration is accomplished through truths, nos. 1555 1904, 2046, 2189, 9088, 9959, 10028.

That power against evils and falsities and against hell is gained through truths, nos. 3091 4015, 10488.

That purification from evils and falsities is accomplished through truths, nos. 2799 5954, 7044, 7918, 10229, 10237.

That the church is formed by means of truths, nos. 1798 1799, 3963, 4468, 4672.

That heaven is formed through truths, 6690, 9832, 9931, 10303.

That the innocence of wisdom is attained through truths, nos. 3183 3494, 6013.

That conscience is formed through truths, nos. 1077 2053, 9113.

That order is achieved through truths, nos. 3316 3417, 3570, 4104, 5339, 5343, 6028, 10303.

The beauty of angels is due to truths, and so, too, is the beauty of people as regards their inner qualities which are those of their spirit, nos. 553 3080, 4985, 5199.

That a person is human as a result of truths, nos. 3175 3387, 8370, 10298.

Even so, however, all of these effects are occasioned by truths springing from goodness, and not by truths apart from goodness, goodness that comes from the Lord, nos. 2434 4070, 4736, 5147.

That all goodness comes from the Lord, nos. 1614 2016, 2904, 4151, 5147, 9981.

[3] But who gives any thought to this? Is it not a matter of indifference today whether someone knows this or that truth, provided he attends services of worship? Moreover, because few explore the Word in order to learn truths and live by them, people do not know anything about their worship as to whether it is lifeless or living, and yet it is according to the character of his worship that a person is himself dead or alive.

Of what value otherwise are the Word and doctrine drawn from it? Of what value otherwise are observance of the Sabbath and sermons, or theological treatises? Indeed, of what value otherwise are the church and religion?

That all worship in the beginning is natural, and later becomes spiritual through truths from the Word and a life according to them, is something people know. For a person is born natural, but is taught to become civic-minded and moral, and later spiritual, for thus he is reborn.

All of this is symbolically meant, then, by the directive, "Remember therefore how you have received and heard."

3183. 'And her nurse' means from the innocence belonging to that affection, that is to say, which also they sent away, or separated from themselves. This is clear from the meaning of 'a nurse' or wet nurse, as innocence. Sucklings and those who suckle them are mentioned frequently in the Word, where they mean the first state that young children pass through, which is plainly a state of innocence. For as soon as anyone is born he is brought into a state of innocence. This state then serves as the basis of all other states and is the inner core of them all; and this state is meant in the Word by 'a suckling'. After he has been brought into a state of innocence he is led into a state of affection for celestial good, that is, into a state of love towards parents, which with them exists in place of love to the Lord; this state is meant by 'a young child'. After that he is led into a state of affection for spiritual good, which is mutual love, or charity towards those who are children like himself, which state is meant by the expression 'boys'. When he grows up further still he is led into a state of affection for truth; this is meant by the expression 'young men'. Subsequent states however are meant by 'men' and at last 'old men'. This final state, which is meant by the expression 'old men', is a state of wisdom which has the innocence of earliest childhood within it, and so the first state and the last are united. And when he is old, being so to speak a small child again yet one who is now wise, that person is led into the Lord's kingdom.

[2] From this it becomes clear that innocence is the first state, which is that of 'a suckling'. A woman who suckles an infant other than her own also means innocence therefore, for the state of giver and receiver, as with the one who acts and the other who is acted upon, is perceived as being similar. The reason why here it is said that they sent away 'the nurse' or wet nurse too is so that the affection for truth might be described, that is to say, that it sprang from innocence; for it is not the affection for truth unless it has innocence within it, 2526, 2780, 3111. Indeed it is by means of innocence that the Lord flows into that affection, doing so together with wisdom since true innocence is wisdom itself, see 2305, 2306; and those who possess it are seen in the eyes of angels as infants or small children, 154, 2306.

[3] That 'a suckling' in the Word means innocence is also evident from other places, as in David,

Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have founded strength. Psalms 8:2; Matthew 21:16.

Here 'infants' stands for celestial love, 'sucklings' for innocence. In Jeremiah,

Why are you committing great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling from the midst of Judah, so that I cause no remnant to be left to you? Jeremiah 44:7.

Here similarly 'infant and suckling' stands for celestial love and its innocence. When these cease to exist no remnants exist any longer, that is, no good or truth that has been stored away by the Lord in the internal man remains any longer, remnants being good and truth stored away there by Him, see 1906, 2284. For when innocence perishes so do all goods and truths, for innocence comes directly from the Divine Himself, and so is the essential element in them. In the same prophet,

The infant and the suckling faint in the streets of the city. Lamentations 2:11.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,

The sea monsters give the breast, they suckle their young; the daughter of My people is cruel, the tongue of the suckling has cleaved to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the little children begged for bread, none held it out to them. Lamentations 4:3-4.

Again 'suckling' stands for innocence, 'little children' for affections for good. In Moses,

Outside the sword will bereave - and out of the chambers terror - both young man and virgin, and suckling together with old man. Deuteronomy 32:25.

'The sword will bereave young man, virgin, and suckling together with old man' stands for the fact that falsity will destroy the affection for truth and the affection for good, and also innocence together with wisdom. In Isaiah,

They will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulder; and kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your wet nurses. Isaiah 49:22-23.

'Kings as foster fathers' stands for intelligence, 'queens as wet nurses' for wisdom, which, as stated above, is the wisdom that goes with innocence.