863. Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made symbolizes the second state, when religious truth appeared to them. This can be seen from the final words of the last verse (saying that the heads of the mountains appeared) and their meaning; from the symbolism of a window; and from the fact that this is the first moment of light. A window, dealt with above at §655, symbolizes the intellectual side of things and consequently religious truth, which is the same thing.

As for the intellectual realm or the religious truth that the window symbolizes, I must make the same remark as before [§§854, 859]: No religious truth is at all possible unless it develops out of the goodness that goes with love or with charity, just as nothing truly belongs to the intellect unless it rises out of something in the will. If you take away volition, there is no comprehension, as demonstrated several times already [§§112, 585, 590, 628]. So if you take away charity, there is no faith.

But since the human will is undiluted greed, the Lord made a miraculous provision to prevent us from plunging the contents of the intellect — religious truth — into our selfish desires. He divided what belongs to the intellect from our will by the specific means of conscience, which he infuses with charity. Without this miraculous act of providence, no one could ever have been saved.

590. The fact that regret has to do with wisdom, and heartfelt grief with love, cannot be explained clearly to people's understanding. It can only be explained in terms of human experience and so in terms of appearances.

Every concept in our thinking contains something of both intellect and will; to put it another way, it contains something of thought and of love for that thought. If an idea does not draw to some extent on the will, or on love in the will, it is not an idea, because without love we cannot think. There is a kind of marriage, perpetual and inviolable, between thought and will. So the contents of the will or the objects of love in the will are present within the ideas that make up our thinking, or are at least attached to them. From this human experience it seems more or less possible to know (or rather to grasp in some measure) what lies at the heart of the Lord's mercy: wisdom and love.

As a result, the prophets (especially Isaiah) almost everywhere use two terms for every concept, one involving a spiritual quality and the other a heavenly one. ¹ The spiritual aspect of the Lord's mercy is wisdom and its heavenly aspect is love.

Footnotes:

1259. To continue with the concept that nations symbolize the good and bad in a way of worshiping: As already noted [§§470-471, 483:2, 1159:3, 1238:2, 1246], humankind in the earliest times lived divided into nations, clans, and households. The purpose behind this was for the church on earth to represent the Lord's kingdom, where all the inhabitants are marked off into separate communities and the communities into larger communities and these again into still larger ones. It is differences in love and faith, both general and specific, that determine those divisions. (For more on this, see §§684, 685.) So the inhabitants are likewise divided into something like households, clans, and nations.

As a result, different kinds of goodness associated with love and so with faith are symbolized by households, clans, and nations in the Word, which carefully distinguishes between nations and peoples. A nation symbolizes goodness or evil, but a people symbolizes truth or falsity. This is consistently true, without exception, as the following passages illustrate.

[2] In Isaiah, for instance:

It will happen on that day that Jesse's root will be what is standing as a banner of the peoples; it will be what the nations seek, and its resting place will be glorious. On that day, the Lord will apply his hand another, second time to secure the remnant of his people who were left behind by Assyria and by Egypt and by Pathros and by Cush and by Elam and by Shinar and by Hamath and by the islands of the sea. And he will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel, and the scattered elements of Judah he will assemble. (Isaiah 11:10-11, 12)

The peoples stand for the church's true ideas, while the nations ¹ stand for its good qualities, and the two are obviously distinct. The theme is the Lord's kingdom, the church, and (to speak universally) every individual who has been reborn. The names symbolize the same things as before [§§1163-1165, 1183, 1185-1186, 1196, 1205, 1228]. Israel symbolizes the church's spiritual attributes; Judah, its heavenly attributes. In the same author:

This people, walking in shadow, have seen great light. You have multiplied the nation; you have enlarged the gladness in it. (Isaiah 9:2-3)

The people in this passage stand for truth, so they are said to walk in shadow and to see light. ² The nation stands for goodness.

[3] In the same author:

What answer will the messengers of the nation receive? That Jehovah has founded Zion, and the wretched of his people will trust in it. (Isaiah 14:32)

The nation again stands for goodness and the people for truth. In the same author:

Jehovah Sabaoth will swallow up on this mountain the enveloping layers enveloping all the peoples, and the mantle veiling all the nations. ³ (Isaiah 25:7)

This is about a new church — a church among gentile, or non-Jewish, nations. The people stand for its true ideas, and the nations, for its good qualities. In the same author:

Open the gates, so that an upright nation keeping faith may walk in. (Isaiah 26:2)

The nation explicitly stands for goodness. In the same author:

All the nations will assemble together, and the peoples will gather. (Isaiah 43:9)

This too is about a church among non-Jewish nations. The nations stand for its good qualities and the people for its true ideas, and because the two are distinctly different from each other, both are addressed. Otherwise it would be pointlessly repetitive. In the same author:

The Lord Jehovih has said, "Look, now, I will lift my hand to the nations, and for the peoples I will raise my signal. And they will bring your sons in their embrace, and your daughters they will carry here on their shoulder." (Isaiah 49:22)

This is about the Lord's kingdom. The nations again stand for goodness and the peoples for truth.

[4] In the same author:

To the right and left will you burst out, and your seed will inherit the nations, and deserted cities they will inhabit. (Isaiah 54:3)

The subject is the Lord's kingdom and the church called the church of the Gentiles. The nations stand for charitable goodness, or (what is the same) for individuals who display charitable goodness, as can be seen from the fact that the "seed" (faith) will inherit them. The cities stand for truth. In the same author:

Look, now, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a chieftain and lawgiver for the peoples. Look, now, you will call a nation you do not recognize, and a nation that has not known you will run to you. (Isaiah 55:4-5)

The subject here is the Lord's kingdom. The peoples stand for truth, the nations for goodness. In the church, those who are endowed with the good impulses of neighborly love are the nations, while those who are endowed with religious truth are the peoples. Goodness and truth are predicated of the individuals in whom they exist. In the same author:

The nations will walk toward your light, and monarchs toward the radiance of your dawn. Then you will see and flow toward them, and your heart will be struck with awe and expand, because the abundance of the sea will be steered toward you; the armies of the nations will come to you. (Isaiah 60:3, 5)

This passage is about the Lord's kingdom and the church of the Gentiles. In it, the nations stand for goodness, and the monarchs, who are monarchs of the peoples, stand for truth.

[5] In Zephaniah:

The remnant of my people will plunder them, and those remaining of my nation will inherit them. (Zephaniah 2:9)

In Zechariah:

Many peoples and numerous nations will come to seek Jehovah of the Legions in Jerusalem. (Zechariah 8:22)

Jerusalem stands for the Lord's kingdom and for the church. The peoples stand for those who possess religious truth, and the nations for those who exhibit the good impulses of neighborly love, which is why they are mentioned separately. In David:

You will free me from the quarrels of the people; you will put me at the head of the nations. A people I have not known will serve me. (Psalms 18:43)

Again the people stand for those who have true concepts, and nations for those who have goodness. Since these entities go to make up an individual in the church, both are mentioned. In the same author:

The peoples will acclaim you, God. The peoples will acclaim you — all of them; the nations will rejoice and exult, because you will judge the peoples with uprightness, and the nations you will lead into the land. (Psalms 67:3-4)

The peoples obviously stand for those who have religious truth, and the nations for those who possess charitable goodness.

[6] In Moses:

Remember the days of old; understand the years of generation after generation. Ask your father and he will point out to you; your elders and they will tell you: when the Highest One gave an inheritance to the nations and divided the children of humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples by the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:7-8)

The theme here is the earliest church and the ancient churches, which are the days of old and the years of generation after generation. In those churches, the members who exhibited charitable goodness were called nations, to whom an inheritance was given. The children of humankind and then the peoples were members possessing religious truth that grew out of charity.

Because nations symbolize the church's good qualities and peoples symbolize its true ideas, when Esau and Jacob were still in the womb it was said that:

Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will divide from your belly. (Genesis 25:23)

This evidence now establishes what the term church of the Gentiles (or of the nations) really means; the earliest church was the real church of the Gentiles, and after it, the ancient church was. ⁴

[7] Because those who have charity are called nations, while those who possess faith are called peoples, the Lord's role as priest is assigned to the nations (since it involves heavenly attributes, which are different kinds of goodness), while his role as monarch is assigned to the peoples (since it involves spiritual entities, which are true concepts). This was represented in the Jewish religion, whose adherents formed a nation during the time before they had monarchs but became a people after they acquired monarchs. ⁵

Footnotes: