1997. 'I will multiply you more and more' means endless fruitfulness of the affection for truth. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'multiplying' as having reference to truth, dealt with in 43, 55, 913, 983. And because it refers to the Lord it means the endless fruitfulness of truth that flows from good, dealt with already in 1940. There are two types of affection - the affection for good and the affection for truth. The affection for good consists in doing good from a love of good, the affection for truth is doing good from a love of truth. At first glance these two types of affection seem to be identical, but they are quite distinct and separate from each other in essence as well as in origin. The affection for good, or doing good from a love of good, belongs strictly to the will, whereas the affection for truth, or doing good from a love of truth, belongs strictly to the understanding; thus these two types of affection are as distinct from each other as will and understanding. The affection for good springs from celestial love, but the affection for truth from spiritual love. The description 'affection for good' cannot be used except in reference to the celestial man, while 'affection for truth' is used in reference to the spiritual man. What the Celestial is and what the celestial man, and what the Spiritual or the spiritual man is, has been adequately shown in Volume One. The Most Ancient Church, which existed before the Flood, was stirred by the affection for good, but the Ancient Church, which existed after the Flood, was stirred by the affection for truth, for the former was a celestial Church, but the latter a spiritual Church. All angels in heaven are either celestial or spiritual. The celestial are stirred by the affection for good, the spiritual by the affection for truth. To the former the Lord appears as the Sun, to the latter however as the Moon, 1529-1531, 1838. The latter affection, that is, the affection for truth, the Lord united to the affection for good, which consists in doing good from a love of good, when He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence. Consequently 'multiplying more and more' means endless fruitfulness of truth deriving from good.

913. 'Let them spread out into the earth' means the action of the internal man into the external, while 'be fruitful' means increases in good, 'and multiply' increases in truth, and 'over the earth' means with the external man. This is clear from the train of thought and also from what has been stated and shown already about the meaning in the Word of 'being fruitful' as having reference to goods, and of 'multiplying' to truths. That 'the earth' means the external man has in like manner been shown already, so there is no need to pause and confirm these points. Here the subject is the action of the internal man into the external after a person has been regenerated. That is to say, when good starts 'to be fruitful' and truth 'to multiply', the external man is rendered correspondent or obedient. Until then this is not possible because the desires of the body are incompatible with goods, and the illusions of the senses with truths. The former annihilate the love of good, the latter the love of truth. The fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth take place in the external man - the fruitfulness of good in his affections, the multiplication of truth in his memory. The external man is here called 'the earth' into which mankind spreads out and over which they are fruitful and multiply.