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Secrets of Heaven #863

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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.

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Secrets of Heaven #591

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591. Genesis 6:7. And Jehovah said, "I will obliterate the human whom I created from the face of the ground, from human to beast to creeping animal to the bird in the heavens, because I regret that I made these things."

Jehovah said, "I will obliterate the human," means that humanity would annihilate itself. "Whom I created from the face of the ground" symbolizes those who were descendants of the earliest church. "From human to beast to creeping animal" means that whatever was in their will would annihilate them. "To the bird in the heavens" means whatever was in their intellect or thoughts. "Because I regret 1 that I made these things" symbolizes compassion, as above [§§587-588].

Footnotes:

1. The reading "regret" (paenitet) for the first Latin edition's "regretted" (paenituit) is adopted from the immediately preceding full quotation of this verse. [LHC]

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.