491. The same things are signified by “sons” and “daughters” in this chapter (verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30), but such as is the church, such are the “sons and daughters” that is, such are the goods and truths; the truths and goods here spoken of are such as were distinctly perceived, because they are predicated of the Most Ancient Church, the principal and parent of all the other and succeeding churches.

9079. 'Whether it strikes a son with its horn or strikes a daughter with its horn' means an assault made by an affection for evil on truths and forms of the good of faith that are derived from interior things. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking with the horn' as injuring, as above in 9065, thus an assault; and from the meaning of 'a son' as the truth of faith, and of 'a daughter' as the good of faith, dealt with in 489-491, 533, 1147, 2362, 2623. The reason why they are truths and forms of the good of faith which are derived from interior things is that interior things are like parents, from which forms of good and truths are born like sons and daughters. For the forms of good and the truths with a person who has been regenerated are interrelated like different generations. Some come in the parent's place, some in that of the children, some in that of the sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, some in that of the grandsons and granddaughters, and so on. They are interrelated therefore through blood relationships and relationships by marriage; and there are families of them with many lines of descent.

[2] The communities of heaven are arranged in this kind of order; so too are the truths and forms of good with a person who is being regenerated, which also is why he becomes a heaven in miniature. Furthermore, and this is an arcanum, the forms of good and the truths with a person love one another, and in accordance with that love they acknowledge one another, and accordingly exist in association with one another. This has its origin among angelic communities, in which angels love one another, acknowledge one another, and live in association with one another, depending on how similar and close together their forms of good are. And what is amazing, when people governed by a similar good come together, even if they have never seen one another before, it is as though they have seen one another since early childhood. It is from this origin that the forms of good and the truths present with a person link themselves to one another according to the form heaven takes, producing a likeness of heaven in him. But the Lord is the source of all this, both in heaven and in an angelic person, that is, in a person who is being regenerated and becoming an angel.