1026. With every living soul that is with you symbolizes everything in general that has been reborn in us. This can be seen from statements above and below [§§1022, 1036, 1040] and from the symbolism of living. Everything that receives life from the Lord is called living; everything in regenerate people that lives from that life is called a living soul. The extent to which we receive life when we are regenerate determines the extent to which individual elements inside us — both our reasoned ideas and our feelings — have life. This living force in the individual aspects of all we think and say is evident to angels, although it is not very evident to human beings.
Secrets of Heaven #585
585. The evil of the people in the land multiplied means that the will for good began to disappear, as can be seen from what was said above [§568] — that true will no longer existed but only desire. The same meaning can also be seen from the symbolism of the people in the land. At the literal level, the land is where the people are. On an inner plane, it is where love is, and since love is a matter of will or else of desire, the land is taken to mean human will itself. It is willing that makes a person human, and not so much knowing and understanding, since knowing and understanding derive from willing. Anything that fails to flow out of our will is something we do not want to know or understand. In fact when we speak and act at variance with our will, it is still a form of will — one far removed from our words and deeds — that controls us.
The land of Canaan (the Holy Land) is taken to stand for love and so for the will of a heavenly type of person, as many passages from the Word can prove. The same is true for the fact that the lands of various nations stand for the love in the hearts of those peoples — generally love for oneself and for worldly gain. But the term occurs so many times that there is not room to spend time on it here. 1
All of this leads to the conclusion that the evil of the people in the land symbolizes evil on the earthly level, present in the will. It is said to have multiplied because it was not completely sinister in everyone; there were some who still wished good to others, although for selfish reasons. Its thorough corruption is what the thoughts of their heart fabricated.
Footnotes:
1. In a great many passages elsewhere, Swedenborg explores the inner meaning, or rather meanings, of the land of Canaan. For one example, see Secrets of Heaven 5757, which gives a range of meanings with references. See also Swedenborg's 1758 work New Jerusalem 5. [SS]
