2. Horses are often mentioned in the prophetic books of the Word, ¹ but until now no one has been aware that a horse means understanding and its rider means someone who is intelligent. This is perhaps because it seems strange and bewildering to say that a horse has this kind of meaning when spiritually understood, and therefore has this kind of meaning in the Word. There is support for this, however, in many passages in the Word, of which I should like here to cite only a few.

In Israel’s prophecy about Dan:

Dan will be a serpent on the way, a darting serpent on the path, that bites the horse’s heels, and its rider falls backward. (Genesis 49:17, 18)

No one will understand the meaning of this prophecy about one of the tribes of Israel who does not know the meaning of a serpent and of a horse and a rider. No one can fail to know, though, that something spiritual is involved. You may see what these particular things mean in Secrets of Heaven 6398, 6399, 6400, 6401, where this prophecy is explained.

In Habakkuk:

God, you are riding on your horses; your chariots are salvation. You walked through the sea with your horses. (Habakkuk 3:8, 15)

We can see that horses here mean something spiritual because these things are being said of God. Otherwise, what would be involved in God riding on his horses and walking through the sea with his horses?

The same holds true for Zechariah 14:20: “On that day ‘Holiness belongs to Jehovah’ will be engraved on the bells of the horses”; and for Zechariah 12:4, 5: “‘On that day,’ says Jehovah, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah and strike every horse of the people with blindness.’” This is about the purging of the church that happens when there is no longer any understanding of what is true, so it is described in terms of horse and rider. Otherwise, what would be involved in striking every horse with confusion and striking every horse of the people with blindness? What does this have to do with the church?

In Job:

[Because] God deprived [the ostrich] of wisdom and did not endow her with understanding, when she lifts herself up on high, she scorns the horse and its rider. (Job 39:17, 18, 19, and following)

Here it is obvious that the horse means understanding. This is also the case in David when it speaks of “riding on the word of truth” (Psalms 45:4) and in many other passages.

Further, who would know why Elijah and Elisha were called “the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” and why Elisha’s servant saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire if they did not know what a chariot and a cavalry mean and what Elijah and Elisha represent? For Elisha said to Elijah, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” (2 Kings 2:11, 12); and King Joash said to Elisha, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” (2 Kings 13:14); and it says of Elisha’s servant, “Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

The reason Elijah and Elisha were called the chariot of Israel and its cavalry is that both represent the Lord as the Word, the chariot meaning a body of teaching drawn from the Word and the cavalry meaning understanding. On Elijah and Elisha as representing the Lord as the Word, see Secrets of Heaven 5247, 7643, 8029, 9372; and on a chariot as meaning a body of teaching drawn from the Word see §§5321, 8215.

Footnotes:

3993. 'Removing from it every speckled and spotted member of the flock' means that everything good and true that is meant by 'Laban' and which - when mingled with evil, meant by 'speckled', or mingled with falsity, meant by 'spotted' - will be separated. This is clear from the meaning of 'removing' as separating, and from the meaning of 'member of the flock', in this case she-goats and lambs, as goods and truths, dealt with in 1824, 3519. The fact that these details and those that follow in this chapter hold arcana within them may be recognized from the consideration that for the most part they would not be worth mentioning in the Divine Word if they did not include any deeper arcana than those to be seen in the letter, such as the following: For his wages Jacob asked for the speckled and the spotted among the she-goats and for the black among the lambs; and after this, in the runners he placed rods - which he had peeled down to the white and which were of hazel and of plane - in front of Laban's flocks when these came on heat, and in the case of the lambs he set the faces of the flock towards the variegated and the black in Laban's flock, thereby making himself rich not by the use of a good skill but of an evil one. These details do not seem to hold anything Divine within them, and yet the Word is Divine in every single part, even to the smallest part of a letter. And what is more, knowing all these details does not contribute one tiny bit to a person's salvation, yet being Divine the Word does not contain within itself anything else than such things as lead to salvation and eternal life.

[2] From these details and others like them elsewhere anyone may come to the conclusion that some arcanum is concealed within them, and that although in the literal sense they are the kind of facts that are not worth mentioning, those details - every single one - are pregnant with ideas much more Divine. But what exactly these ideas may be cannot possibly be seen by anyone except from the internal sense, that is, unless he knows the way in which angels perceive these matters; for they perceive the spiritual sense when man sees the historical natural sense. How remote these two senses seem to be from each other when in fact they are closely linked to one another may become quite evident from the historical details explained above and from all other such details. The actual arcanum present within the details here and in those after them in this chapter may, it is true, be known to some extent from what has been stated already about Laban and Jacob - about 'Laban' meaning the kind of good by means of which genuine goods and truths are able to be introduced, while 'Jacob' means the good of truth. Yet few know what natural good corresponding to spiritual good is, even fewer what spiritual good is and that a correspondence ought to exist between the two, and fewer still that a type of good which merely looks like good is the means for introducing genuine goods and truths. This being so, the arcana which describe these matters cannot be explained easily and intelligibly since they fall within the poorly lit parts of the understanding. It is rather like someone talking in a foreign language, in that no matter how clearly the thing is explained in that language the hearer does not understand. Even so, because what is concealed in the internal sense of the Word is to be made known, the actual arcanum within the details here has to be discussed.

[3] In the highest sense the subject at this point is how the Lord made His own Natural Divine, and in the representative sense how the Lord regenerates the natural as it exists with man and brings it into correspondence with his interior man, that is, with that which is going to live after the death of the body. At that point it is called man's spirit which, when released from the body, takes with it every part of the external man except the flesh and bones. If the correspondence of the internal man with the external has not been effected in the temporal state, that is, during a person's life in the body, it is not effected after that. The Lord's joining of the two together through regeneration is the subject in the internal sense here.

[4] Previous sections have dealt with the general truths which a person ought to receive and acknowledge before he can be regenerated, those truths being meant by Jacob's ten sons by Leah and the servant-girls; then they deal - after he has received and acknowledged them - with the joining of the external man to the interior, that is, of the natural man to the spiritual, which was meant by 'Joseph'. Now in the sequence of ideas the subject is the fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth which begin to occur once the rational man has been joined to the spiritual, and in the measure that they are so joined. These are the considerations meant by the flock which Jacob acquired to himself by means of Laban's flock. 'Flock' here means good and truth, as it does many times elsewhere in the Word. 'Laban's flock' means the good that is represented by 'Laban', the nature of which has been stated above; 'Jacob's flock' means the genuine good and truth which is acquired by means of that good represented by Laban.

[5] It is the way in which genuine goods and truths are acquired that is described here. Yet this cannot by any means be comprehended unless one knows what is meant in the internal sense by 'speckled', 'spotted', 'black' and 'white', and therefore these must first be dealt with here. That which is speckled or that which is spotted consists of black and of white. In general 'black' means that which is evil, in particular man's proprium since this is nothing but evil. 'Dark' however means that which is false, and in particular false assumptions. 'White' in the internal sense means truth; strictly speaking it means the Lord's Righteousness and Merit, and from this the Lord's righteousness and merit as these exist with man. This whiteness is called bright because it shines from the light that radiates from the Lord. But 'white' in the contrary sense means self-righteousness or one's own merit. Indeed truth devoid of good has such merit within it, for when any good action performed by a person does not stem from the good of truth that person always desires something in return since he acts for the sake of himself. But when good lies behind the truth that a person carries into effect, that truth is enlightened by the light which radiates from the Lord. From this one may see what is meant by 'spotted', namely truth with which falsity has been mingled, and what by 'speckled', namely good with which evil has been mingled.

[6] Actually visible in the next life are colours so beautiful and bright that they defy description, 1053, 1624. They are the product of the variegation of light and shade within white and black. But although it appears before the eyes as light, the light there is unlike the light in the world. The light in heaven includes intelligence and wisdom, for Divine Intelligence and Wisdom from the Lord manifest themselves there as light and also light up the whole of heaven, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339-3341, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3862. Shade likewise in the next life, although it appears as shade, is unlike shade in the world, since the shade in that life is the absence of light and as a consequence the lack of intelligence and wisdom. So because the white and the black are in the next life a product of light which has intelligence and wisdom within it, and a product of the shade which is the lack of these, it is evident that white and black mean such things as have been stated above. Consequently, since colours are the modifications of light and shade within surfaces consisting of white and black, it is the variegations produced by those modifications that are called colours, 1042, 1043, 1053.

[7] From all this one may see what is meant by speckled, or marked and dotted with black and white specks, namely good with which evil has been mingled, and also what is meant by spotted, namely truth with which falsity has been mingled. These are the things that were taken from 'Laban good' to serve in the introducing of genuine goods and truths. But in what way they are able to serve is an arcanum which can indeed be presented clearly to those who see in the light of heaven because this light, as has been stated, holds intelligence within it, but not to those who see in the light of the world unless their light of the world is lit up by the light of heaven, as it is with those who are regenerate. For every regenerate person sees goods and truths within his own natural light from the light of heaven, because the light of heaven brings sight to his understanding even as the inferior light of the world gives him natural sight.

[8] But all this needs to be taken a little further. No pure good, or good with which evil is not mingled, exists with anyone. Neither does any pure truth, or truth with which falsity is not mingled, exist with him. This is because man's will is nothing but evil, from which falsity is constantly passing into his understanding; for as is well known, he possesses by inheritance the evil that has been accumulated consecutively by his forefathers. From this inheritance he brings out evil into his own actions and makes it his own, adding further evil from himself to the inheritance. But the evils residing with man are of various kinds. There are evils with which goods cannot be mingled and there are evils with which they can. And the same applies to falsities. If this were not so nobody could ever have been regenerated. The evils and falsities with which goods and truths cannot be mingled are ones that are contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour - forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty, and consequent contempt for others in comparison with oneself, and also consequent false persuasions. But the evils and falsities with which goods and truths can be mingled are ones that are not contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour.

[9] Take for example anyone who loves himself more than others and because of that love strives to excel others in private life and in public life, to excel them in knowledge and doctrine, and to be promoted to positions of greater importance than others, and also to greater affluence than others. If at the same time he acknowledges and adores the Lord, from the heart performs acts of kindness to the neighbour, and from conscience behaves justly and fairly, the evil that belongs to his self-love is such that good and truth can be mingled with it. For this is an evil which belongs to a person as his own and into which he is born by heredity. And to take that away from him suddenly would be to put out the fire of life that burns in him at first. But in the case of someone who loves himself more than others and because of that love despises others in comparison with himself, hates those who do not hold him in esteem and so to speak adore him, and therefore enjoys the feelings of hatred that are present in revenge and cruelty, the evil of that love is such that good and truth cannot be mingled with it because they are contraries.

[10] Take as another example anyone who believes that he is pure from sins, and so is cleansed like somebody from whom dirt has been washed away by means of much water, once he has repented and carried out the prescribed penances, or after he has made his confession and heard the confessor declare him free from sins, or after he has been to the Holy Supper. If he leads a new life, being stirred by an affection for good and truth, that falsity is such that good can be mingled with it. But if he goes on leading a carnal and worldly life as before, it is in that case a falsity with which good cannot be mingled. Also, with anyone who believes that man is saved by virtue of believing what is good and not of willing it, and yet who does will what is good and therefore does it, that falsity is such that good and truth can be attached to it. But not so if he does not will what is good and therefore does not do it.

[11] Take yet another example. If anyone does not know that man rises again after death and consequently does not believe in the resurrection, or else if anyone who does know but nevertheless doubts or practically denies it, and yet each one leads a life of truth and goodness, good and truth can be mingled with that falsity also. But if a person leads a life of falsity and evil they cannot be mingled with that same falsity because they are contraries. The falsity destroys the truth, and the evil destroys the good.

[12] And still another example. Pretence and shrewdness which have a good end in view, whether the good of the neighbour, or of one's country, or of the Church, constitute prudence. The evils that are mixed up with them can be mingled with good by reason of and for the sake of the end in view. But presence and shrewdness which have an evil end in view do not constitute prudence but trickery and deceit. Good cannot possibly be joined to these, for deceit which goes with an evil end in view brings what is of hell into every single part of a person, sets evil in the middle, and casts good away to the circumferences. This order is the order itself of hell. And so with countless other examples that could be taken.

[13] The fact that there are some evils and falsities to which goods and truths can be attached may be seen merely from the consideration that so many different dogmas and teachings exist, many of them totally heretical, and yet subscribing to each one there are people who are saved. The same may also be seen from the consideration that among gentiles outside of the Church there is another Church that is the Lord's, and that those are saved who lead charitable lives, even though falsities exist with them, 2589 2604. This could by no means be the case if there were no evils with which goods can be mingled, and no falsities with which truths can be mingled. For the evils with which goods are mingled, and the falsities with which truths are mingled, are wonderfully arranged into order by the Lord. For they are not combined with one another, still less are they made into one, but lie adjacent to and touch one another, so that in fact the goods together with the truths occupy the middle, at the central point so to speak, while the evils and falsities occupy positions radiating outwards to the surrounding areas or circumferences. Consequently the evils and falsities receive light from the goods and truths, and are variegated like patches of white and black created by light radiating from the middle or centre. This constitutes heavenly order. These are the things meant in the internal sense by 'speckled' and 'spotted'.

800. And them that dwell in heaven, signifies spiritual goods and truths, from which is the heavenly marriage. This is evident from the signification of "blaspheming them that dwell in heaven," as being to falsify spiritual goods and truths. By "them that dwell in heaven" the angels are meant; and as the angels are angels from the reception of the Divine good and the Divine truth, and as the spiritual sense is abstracted from persons, "angels" here signify the goods and truths from which they are angels; and these are also signified by "angels" elsewhere in the Word (See above, n. 301, 302). "Angels" signify spiritual goods and truths because all who are in heaven are spiritual, and think and speak spiritually. But it is otherwise with men on earth, who being natural, think and speak naturally, and therefore goods and truths with them are natural. And as good and truth mutually love each other, and for that reason they must needs be conjoined, it is also said, from which is the heavenly marriage. This, too, is signified by "them that dwell in heaven," since all in heaven are in that marriage, and this is why heaven is likened in the Word to a marriage; and there is a like marriage in every least particular of the Word, as may be seen above (n. 238, 288, 484, 724); also an angel cannot be an angel of heaven unless he is in that marriage, or unless that marriage is with him; and the like is true of the man of the church (See n. 660). From this again it is evident that a man who separates faith from good works is not a man of the church. From this it can now be seen that "to blaspheme them that dwell in heaven" signifies to falsify spiritual goods and truths from which is the heavenly marriage.

[2] In the two preceding articles those who separate faith from the goods of life and thereby so falsify the Word as to close heaven to themselves, also those who join the goods of life to faith and thereby do not so falsify the Word as to close heaven to themselves, have been treated of. It now follows in order that something be said about those who, although they are in the churches where faith alone is acknowledged, still do not falsify the Word.

1. These are such as do not separate faith from the life but conjoin them by the belief that faith and life make one, like affection and thought, like will and understanding, like heat and light in the time of spring and summer, from the conjunction of which comes all germination, and like truth and good, when truth is put in place of faith, and good in place of life. On the conjunction of all these see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. Such affirm within themselves that no one who lives wickedly can have faith, but only he who lives well, and that one who lives wickedly cannot receive faith unless he performs repentance of life by seeking out his evils and desisting from them; likewise that one who lives wickedly cannot, in his spirit or in himself, have any other faith than a belief in falsity, however he may profess with the mouth a belief in truth. Therefore the life of those who so conjoin life and faith in profession and in works is charity, and their faith is the thought that a thing is so in truth. The faith of such is spiritual so far as they know truths from the Word, and live according to them, for faith becomes spiritual from the life, and so far as man thence becomes spiritual heaven is opened to him.

[3] 2. Neither do those falsify the Word who do not know, and do not wish to know, that faith is anything else than believing those things that are in the Word and doing them, for they see that faith is to believe and to do, and that to believe and not to do is a faith of the mouth and not of the heart, thus is outside of man and not within him. These, when they act, believe that faith is believing that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; and that to love God and to love the neighbor is to do the commandments in the Word; and such, so far as they desist from evils and shun and turn away from them because they are sins, so far do the commandments from God, and not from themselves. These also believe that the Lord came into the world to save those who believe in Him and who do what He taught.

[4] 3. Because such do not know, and do not wish to know, that faith is anything else than this, they do not acknowledge that justification and salvation are effected by merely believing that God the Father sent his Son, that by His blood He might effect propitiation, redemption, and salvation; for they perceive that merely to believe this and not to live any life of faith, which is charity, rather condemns than justifies; it rather condemns for the reason that it is not a belief in truth, but a belief in falsity; for it is a belief in immediate mercy, which is reformation and regeneration without means; which is imputation, propitiation, and intercession, not one of which is possible. Moreover, it is not true that a Son born from eternity was sent by the Father into the world, nor is it true that the Father was propitiated by the blood of the Son, nor is it true that the Lord transferred sins to Himself and thus effected redemption; and so with other things. So far as these are appearances of truth from the sense of the letter of the Word they may be asserted and also thought, but must not be so confirmed as to destroy the genuine truth that is in heaven, and that the doctrine of the church can teach from the Word. Those therefore who place all things of faith in that confession not only reject to the side all truths, which are innumerable, from which angels and men have life and wisdom, and make the universal theology to consist in certain expressions, uttered with confidence, in which there are no truths; but to confirm these expressions they must needs falsify the Word and thereby close heaven to themselves. But more on this subject elsewhere. So much concerning those who falsify the Word and those who do not falsify it.