1725. The symbolism of Melchizedek as the heavenly qualities of the Lord's intermediate self can be seen from the symbolism of Melchizedek given just below. It can also be seen from what comes before and after.

I have already defined the inner self, intermediate self, and outer self sufficiently [§§3, 268, 857, 978, 1015, 1563, 1568, 1577, 1589:2, 1702, 1718]. I have also shown that the inner self acts through the intermediate self on the outer self. As noted, the inner self acts on the intermediate self either by heavenly or by spiritual means. It acts by heavenly means in anyone who has been reborn, that is, in those who live a life of love for the Lord and for their neighbor. It acts by spiritual means, though, in all people, whatever they are like, providing them with light from heaven — that is, with the ability to think, to speak, and to be human. For the discussion of this above, see §1707.

[2] The heavenly qualities of the intermediate self are all the different facets of heavenly love, as mentioned many times before. ¹ These heavenly qualities in the Lord's intermediate self (or rather his intermediate self in regard to these qualities) are called Melchizedek.

The Lord's inner being was Jehovah himself. When his intermediate self was purified after the battles of his spiritual struggle, it too became divine, became Jehovah. Likewise his outer self. But at the present point, in a time of spiritual conflict, not yet completely purified by spiritual battle, he is called Melchizedek — "king of sacred justice" ² — in relation to his heavenly attributes.

[3] The fact that this is so can also be seen in David, where the subject again is the Lord's spiritual battles, and where in the end the heavenly qualities of his intermediate self are called Melchizedek. This is what David says:

Jehovah said to my Lord, "Sit at my right till I have placed your foes as a stool for your feet. Jehovah will send a scepter of strength out from Zion. Rule in the midst of your foes. Yours is a willing people, on the day of your might, among sacred honors. Out of the womb from the dawn you receive the dew of your birth." Jehovah has sworn and will not go back on it: "You are a priest forever in accord with my word; [you are] Melchizedek." The Lord at your right struck monarchs on the day of his anger. (Psalms 110:1-2, 3-4, 5)

Like the present chapter, this has to do with the Lord's inward battles against the hells, as the individual words reveal. The Lord himself teaches that he is the one meant here (Matthew 22:43-44, 45; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42-43, 44). Placing his foes as his footstool, ruling in the midst of his foes, a day of might, and striking monarchs on the day of his anger — all these symbolize inward struggles and victories.

Footnotes:

978. Few if any today know what the inner self and the outer self are. They consider the two selves to be one and the same, primarily because they believe they do good and think truth on their own. That is one of the effects of a sense of autonomy. ¹ The inner self, though, is as distinct from the outer as heaven is from earth.

When they contemplate the subject, neither those who are well educated nor those who are untaught conceive of the inner person as anything but the faculty of thought, since this is internal. They consider the outer person to be the body with its sensory abilities and pleasures, since these are external. But the thinking that they consider part of the inner self is not in fact part of it. The inner self contains nothing but good impulses and true concepts, which are the Lord's; and the intermediate self contains conscience implanted by the Lord. Yet bad people — even the worst of them — have the ability to think, and people devoid of conscience do too. This leads to the conclusion that a person's faculty of thought belongs to the outer rather than the inner self.

To see that the body with its sensory abilities and pleasures is not the outer person, consider the fact that spirits, who have no such body as they had while living in the world, are still just as much in possession of an outer self.

[2] No one can ever see what the inner person and the outer person are without knowing that each of us has: a heavenly and spiritual plane (corresponding to the heaven of angels); ² a rational plane (corresponding to the heaven of angelic spirits); and a relatively deep sensory plane (corresponding to the heaven of spirits).

There are three heavens, all of them present inside us, and the distinctions among them are very clear. That is why people with a conscience first find themselves in the heaven of spirits after death, then are raised by the Lord into the heaven of angelic spirits, and finally come into the heaven of angels. This could never happen unless we had the same number of heavens inside us, so that we could relate to those heavens and to conditions in each. ³

These things have made it clear to me what constitutes the inner self and what the outer. Heavenly and spiritual qualities form the inner self, rational thinking forms the intermediate self, and sense impressions (not direct physical sensation but something derived from it) form the outer self. These are present not only in people on earth but in spirits too.

[3] To address the scholars among my readers, the three planes interrelate in the way goal, means, and result do. ⁴ People recognize that no result can ever exist without means and no means without a goal. Result, means, and goal are as clearly distinguished from one another as the outer, inner, and inmost levels.

Strictly speaking, our sensory being (the part of us that thinks on the basis of sense impressions) is the outer person. Strictly speaking again, our heavenly and spiritual being is the inner self. Our rational being is halfway in between, and through it, or through our rational capacity, the inner self communicates with the outer.

I realize that few will grasp these concepts, for the reason that we live on the surface and base our thinking on superficial things. That is why some people identify with animals and believe that when their own body dies they will die altogether. ⁵

After we die, however, we first start to live. Good people in the other world then begin by living a life full of sensory experience in the world of spirits — that is, in the heaven of spirits. ⁶ Later they live a life of deeper sense experience in the heaven of angelic spirits, and finally they live a life marked by the deepest kind of sensation in the heaven of angels. This last kind of life — angelic life — is the life of the inner self, but almost nothing can be said about it that people will be able to understand.

[4] Only regenerate people can see that angelic life is the life of the inner self, and only if they reflect on goodness and truth, and on conflict [between the inner and outer selves]. After all, the life of the inner self is the Lord's life in us, because it is through the inner self that the Lord puts charitable goodness and religious truth to work in our outer self.

Anything from the inner self that rises to awareness in our thoughts and feelings is a general impression containing countless elements that come from the inner self. These elements are imperceptible to us until we arrive in the angels' heaven. For a description of their general effect and its nature, see the lesson of experience in §545.

But what has been said here about the inner self is not necessary for salvation, since it exceeds many people's grasp. Simply let them be aware that there is an inner and an outer self, and acknowledge and believe that everything good and true comes from the Lord.

Footnotes: