4169. 'Your sheep and your she-goats have not miscarried' means its state as regards good and the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sheep' as good, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'she-goat' as the good of truth, dealt with in 3995, 4006. The word good when used by itself means the good of the will, whereas the expression the good of truth means the good of the understanding. The good of the will consists in doing good from good, whereas the good of the understanding consists in doing it from truth. To people who do good from truth those two activities seem to be one and the same, when in fact they are considerably different from each other. For doing good from good consists in doing it from the perception of good, and that perception does not exist with any except those who are celestial. But doing good from truth is doing it from knowledge and consequently from the understanding. It amounts to doing it without any perception that it is good, and so solely as something that a person has been taught to do by others, or else by the exercise of his own intellect has decided that it is good. Such truth may well be faulty, but if it has good as its end in view, then a person's action arising out of that truth becomes tantamount to good.

[2] 'Sheep' means goods. This may be seen from many places in the Word, from which places let merely the following be quoted: In Isaiah,

He was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He is led like a lamb ¹ to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:7.

This refers to the Lord, where He is compared to 'a sheep' not by virtue of truth but of good. In Matthew,

Jesus said to the twelve whom He sent out, Do not go into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 10:5-6.

'The gentiles' to whom they were forbidden to go stands for those among whom evils exist - 'gentiles' meaning evils, see 1259, 1260, 1849; 'the cities of the Samaritans' stands for those among whom falsities are present; and 'sheep' stands for those among whom forms of good may be found.

[3] In John,

Jesus after the Resurrection said to Peter, Feed My lambs. A second time He said, Feed My sheep; the third time He said, Feed My sheep. John 21:15-17.

'Lambs' stands for those who have innocence within them. The first reference to 'sheep' stands for people whose practice of good stems from good, the second for those whose practice of it stems from truth. In Matthew,

When the Son of Man comes in His glory He will place the sheep at His right hand but the goats at His left. And He will say to those at His right hand, Come, O blessed of My Father, possess as an inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:31-40.

Here it is quite plain that 'sheep' stands for goods, that is, for those in whom good is present. Every kind of good flowing from charity, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described elsewhere, is included here in the internal sense. 'Goats' means in particular those who have faith but no charity.

[4] Similarly in Ezekiel,

As for you, O My flock, said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am judging between one member of the flock and another, between rams of the sheep, and he-goats. Ezekiel 34:17.

'He-goats' means in particular those whose faith is not linked to any charity. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'he-goats' in the good sense as those who possess the truth of faith and from this some charity, but in the contrary sense those whose faith is not linked to any charity. Such people reason about salvation from basic assumptions that faith is what saves. The same point is apparent from what the Lord says about the goats in the passage in Matthew quoted above. But people who do not possess any truth of faith, or at the same time any good of charity, are carried away into hell without undergoing any such judgement, that is to say, without any examination to prove that they are governed by falsity.

Voetnoten:

10814. At this point I was led to talk to the angels present with me about dominion. There are two kinds, one being that which belongs to love towards the neighbour, the other that which belongs to self-love. Dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour exists among those who dwell separated into households, families, and clans, whereas dominion belonging to self-love exists among those who dwell together in society. Among those who live separated into households, families, and clans, the one who is father of the clan has dominion, as do the heads of families under him, and as do the fathers of each household under these; 'father of the clan' describes one from whom families descend, and from those families households. But in the exercise of dominion all these leaders are moved by a love like that of a father towards his children, who teaches them how they must live, does what is good to them, and as far as he can gives them what is his. It never enters his mind to make them subordinate to himself as subjects or as domestic servants; rather, he loves them to obey him like sons obedient to their father. And since, as is well known, this love increases as it descends, the father of the clan is moved to action by a love more internal than that of the actual father from whom the sons directly spring. This kind of dominion also exists in the heavens because it is the kind of dominion that is the Lord's. His dominion arises out of Divine Love towards the whole human race.

[2] But dominion belonging to self-love, which is the opposite of dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour, came into being when people alienated themselves from the Lord; for to the extent that people do not love and worship the Lord they love and worship themselves, and also love the world rather than heaven. At this point it became necessary, for their own safety, for the clans consisting of families and households to come together in a single body and institute various forms of government. For to the extent that this love increased, so did evils of every sort, such as enmity, envy, hatred, vengeance, deceit, and brutality directed against all who opposed them. Furthermore the nature of that love is such that so far as it is given rein it rushes along, till at length everyone ruled by it wishes to have dominion over all others throughout the world, and everyone wishes to possess all the goods belonging to others. Nor indeed does it stop there; everyone wishes to have dominion as well over the whole of heaven, as may be recognized from the present-day Babylon. Such then is dominion belonging to self-love, dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour being as different from it as heaven is from hell.

[3] But although dominion belonging to self-love is such among people living in society, dominion belonging to love towards the neighbour nevertheless exists, even in kingdoms, among those who are wise on account of their belief in and love to God; for these love their neighbour. These too dwell in heaven divided into clans, families, and households, even though they live together in society; but they do so in accord with spiritual relationships, which are those of the good of love and the truth of faith. These in the Lord's Divine mercy will be spoken of elsewhere.

10814a. 'This sixth planet out in space' is continued at the end of the next chapter.