52. As long as someone is a spiritual man, the dominion over him runs from external man to internal man, as is said here, 'They will have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air', and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'. When however he becomes celestial and does what is good out of love, then the dominion over him runs from internal man to external man. This is how the Lord describes Himself, and so simultaneously the celestial man, who is a likeness of Him, in David,

You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, flocks and all cattle, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, ¹ and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:6-8.

Here therefore the beasts are mentioned first, the birds next, and the fish of the sea after that, for the reason that the celestial man starts with love which resides in the will. With the spiritual man it is different. With him fish and birds, which have to do with the understanding, the domain of faith, come first, while beasts come afterwards.

Voetnoten:

7245. 'behold, I am uncircumcised in the lips' means that it is impure, that is to say, the law of God is impure to those who are steeped in falsities.

AC 7245a. 'And how will Pharaoh hear me?' means that for that reason those steeped in falsities are not going to accept it. This is clear from what was stated above in 7224, 7225, where the same words occur. When Moses says that he is 'uncircumcised in the lips' the meaning in the internal sense, according to what has been shown in 7225, is that the law of God is seen to be impure by those steeped in falsities. In the historical sense however, in which Moses as the head stands for the descendants of Jacob and whatever there is of the Church among them, as shown above in 7041, 'uncircumcised in the lips' means that Divine worship among that nation was of such a nature. For the worship among that nation was impure, since they venerated outward things and totally rejected inner values, which are faith and charity. Indeed they spurned any actual recognition of inner realities, such as all those which religious observances served to mean and represent. And because that nation was like this their worship was impure; for they were led to worship Jehovah by self-love and love of the world, not by love to Him and love towards the neighbour. This impure worship is meant in the historical sense when Moses says that he is 'uncircumcised in the lips'; but the meaning in the internal sense is as explained above in 7225.