527. "So that the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise." - That these words signify that the spiritual light of truth and the natural light of truth were altogether extinguished, is evident from the signification of day, which denotes spiritual light, and from the signification of night, which denotes natural light. These things are signified, because it was said above, that the third part of the sun, the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, were darkened, and by day is meant the light of the sun, and by night, the light of the moon and stars, because the sun gives light during the day, and the moon and the stars give light in the night. Something shall first be said concerning light from the sun, which is called the light of the day, and concerning light from the moon and the stars, which is called the light of the night.

[2] Light from the sun, which is called the light of the day, and also day, means spiritual light, such as the angels enjoy who see the Lord as a sun; and light from the moon and stars, called the light of the night, and also night, means natural light (lux naturalis), such as the angels enjoy who see the Lord as a moon. That the Lord appears to the angels as a sun, and also as a moon, may be seen in the Heaven and Hell 116-125). Those heavens that are in the spiritual affection of truth, that is, who love truth because it is truth, behold the Lord as a sun; and because this is spiritual, therefore the light which is from the Lord as a sun is spiritual. But those heavens that are in the natural affection of truth, that is, who love truth in order to be learned and to instruct others, behold the Lord as a moon, these being in the love of it for the sake of what is useful for themselves, and not for the sake of truth itself, they are therefore in the light which proceeds from the Lord as a moon. This light differs from that which proceeds from the Lord as a sun, as the light of day from the sun differs from the light of the night from the moon and stars in our world. Just as the lights with them differ, so also do the truths, because the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is the cause of all light in the heavens; see in the Heaven and Hell 126-140).

[3] Those therefore who are in spiritual light, are in genuine truths, and also when they hear truths, which they did not know before, they at once acknowledge them, and perceive that they are truths. It is different with those who are in natural light; these, when they hear truths, receive them because they are uttered by men of reputation, in whom they repose confidence, although they do not see and perceive [them to be truths]; most of these therefore are in faith from others, but still in a life according to faith. Into these heavens all those come who have lived well, although they have been in falsities of doctrine; nevertheless falsities are there continually purified, until at length they appear as truths. From these considerations the signification of the day shining not for a third part thereof, and the night likewise, is evident. That the third part signifies all, fulness and completeness, may be seen above (n. 506).

[4] The signification of day and night here is similar to that of day and night in the first chapter of Genesis; where it is said:

"God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good; and God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day" (1:3, 4, 5).

Afterwards it is said:

"And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and the night and they shall be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. And God made two great luminaries; the great luminary to rule the day, and the lesser luminary to rule the night; and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth; and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide between the light and between the darkness. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day" (1:14-19).

The light which was made on the first day, signifies Divine light, which in itself and in its essence is Divine Truth, thus spiritual light, which enlightens the understanding. The subject treated of in that chapter, in the internal sense, is the establishment of a church by the Lord amongst the most ancient people. And because the understanding must first be enlightened, for without such enlightenment from the Lord there can be no reformation, consequently no church in man, therefore light is first spoken of, or it is said that there was light [lux] on the first day. The words "God saw the light, that it was good," signify that enlightenment and reception with them was good. But darkness signifies the light [lumen] which is in the natural man, which is also called natural light (lumen naturale); because this light compared with spiritual light (lux spiritualis) is like darkness, it is therefore meant by darkness.

For every man has a lower or exterior mind, and a higher or interior mind; the lower or exterior mind is the natural mind, and is called the natural man, but the higher or interior mind is the spiritual mind, and is called the spiritual man. The reason why the mind is called the man, is, because man is man by virtue of mind. These two minds, the higher and lower, are perfectly distinct. Man by means of the lower mind, is in the natural world, together with men there, but by means of the higher mind he is in the spiritual world with the angels there. These two minds are so distinct, that man while in the world does not know what takes place in his higher mind, and when he becomes a spirit, which is immediately after death, he does not know what takes place in his lower mind. It is therefore said that God divided between the light and between the darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness night. It is consequently evident that day signifies spiritual light (lux spiritualis), and darkness, natural light (lux naturalis). Because all the heavens are so distinct, that those who are in spiritual light may be in light from the Lord as a sun, and those who are in spiritual natural light may be in light from the Lord as a moon, as was said in the article above, it is therefore said, "Let there be two luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and between the night, and to rule in the day and in the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness." From these things, therefore, it is evident that by day is there meant spiritual light, and by night, natural light, which in heaven is called spiritual-natural light.

[5] Similar things are signified by day and night in the following passages.

In David,

Jehovah "who by understanding made the heavens, who spreadeth forth the earth above the waters, who made great luminaries, the sun to rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night" (Psalm 136:5-9).

So in Jeremiah:

"Jehovah giveth the sun for a light of the day, and the statutes of the moon and of the stars for a light of the night" (31:35).

Again, in David:

"The day is thine, Jehovah, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun" (Psalm 74:16).

And in Jeremiah:

"If ye shall have rendered void my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there shall not be day and night in their season; my covenant also may be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. If I shall not have fixed my covenant of the day and of the night, and the statutes of the heaven and the earth; then cast I away the seed of Jacob and David" (33:20, 21, 25, 26).

Here by the covenant of the day, and the covenant of the night, are meant all the statutes of the church, prescribed to the children of Israel in the Word, by means of which they had conjunction with heaven, and by means of heaven with the Lord. They are called the covenant of the day and of the night, because they are for heaven and also for the church, the spiritual things which are represented and signified being for heaven, and the natural things which are representative and significative being for the church. Therefore the covenants of the day and of the night are there called the statutes of the heaven and the earth, and the covenant of the night is called the statutes of the moon and stars; to render void, signifies not to keep. That no otherwise would there be conjunction with the Lord by the Divine Truth, nor by the Divine Good, is signified by, "My covenant with David my servant also shall not be broken, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites the priests, my ministers." The covenant with David denotes conjunction with the Lord by means of the Divine Truth, no son upon his throne denotes no reception of the Divine Truth by any one, and the covenant with the Levites the priests, my ministers, denotes conjunction with the Lord by means of the Divine Good.

[6] So again, in David,

"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light for me. Yea, the darkness shall not make darkness before thee; but the night shall be as bright as the day; as the darkness so the light" (Psalm 139:11, 12).

These words signify that the natural man equally as the spiritual is enlightened by the Lord. Natural light is signified by darkness and night; and spiritual light, by light and day; "the night shall be as bright as the day, and as the darkness so the light" signifies the same as these words in Isaiah:

"The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun" (30:26).

These things are said in order that it may be known, that by the day which shone not for the third part of it, is signified spiritual light, and by the night which shone not in like manner, is signified natural light, thus that they have the same signification as light from the sun, and light from the moon.

24. 4. People who live lives based on truth and have good intent; and also the nature of truths that come from what is good. Truth that leads to what is good and truth that comes from what is good, and how they differ: 2063. Truth is not true in essence except to the extent that it comes from something good (4736, 10619), because it is from goodness that truth gets its underlying reality (3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9144) and its life (3111, 2434, 6077). This is also because truth is the form or outward nature of goodness: 3049, 4574, 5951, 9154. The truth we have relates directly to the goodness we have; the amount and quality of both in us are the same: 2429. For anything true to be true, it must get its essence from our leading a life of caring and innocence: 3111, 6013. The truths that come from leading a good life are spiritual truths: 5951.

[2] Truth that comes from goodness is able to unite itself to goodness so thoroughly that the two become one: 4301, 7835, 10252, 10266. Our understanding and will make one mind and one life when our understanding is subordinate to our will, because our understanding is the part of us that is receptive to truth and our will is the part of us that is receptive to goodness; but this oneness does not occur when what we think and say is at variance with what we intend: 3623. Truth that comes from goodness is truth that lives in our will and in our actions: 4337, 4353, 4385, 4390. When truth comes from goodness, an image of that goodness remains present in that truth: 3180.

[3] Throughout the entire heaven and the entire world and in their every detail, there is some form of a marriage (54, 718, 747, 917, 1432, 2173, 2516, 5194); especially between what is true and what is good (1094, 2173, 2508). This is because everything in the universe, in order to be anything at all, must go back to what is good and what is true; and in order to accomplish anything, must be the result of their being joined together: 2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555. The ancients established [a custom of referring to] truth and goodness as partners in a marriage ¹ : 1904. According to the Lord's words, the law of marriage is that two should become one: 10130, 10168, 10169. True marriage love comes down from heaven from the marriage of what is true and what is good and becomes manifest: 2728, 2729.

[4] The more we are focused on goodness and on the truths that result from it, the wiser we are; no matter how much truth we know, however, if we are not focused on leading a good life wisdom will not be ours: 3182, 3190, 4884. When we have the truths that come from leading a good life, we are actually lifted out of this world's light into heaven's light ² -out of dimness, then, into clarity. On the other hand, as long as we only know about truths but are not practicing any goodness, we remain in this world's light and in dimness: 3190, 3191. We do not even know what goodness is until we are practicing it and learning from it: 3325, 3330, 3336. Truths grow by leaps and bounds when they come from leading a good life: 2846, 2847, 5345. More on this growth: 5355. This growth happens the way trees bear fruit and seeds multiply to make whole gardens: 1873, 2846, 2847. Wisdom grows to the same extent as well, and this goes on forever: 3200, 4220, 4221, 5527, 5859, 6663. Not only that, to the extent that we have gained truths from leading a good life, to that extent we are enlightened, and to that extent we experience enlightenment when we read the Word: 9382, 10548, 10549, 10550, 10691, 10694. Good actions that we do out of love are like fire, and the insights into truth that result are like light from that fire: 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. In fact, the truths we learn from living a good life actually do shine in heaven: 5219. The truths we learn from leading a good life, which are the basis of wisdom, increase in proportion to the quality and amount of our love for doing good, and conversely falsities that we absorb from leading an evil life are proportional to the quality and amount of our love for doing evil: 4099. When we are given truths through leading a good life, we come into angelic intelligence and wisdom. These lie hidden within us as long as we are living in this world, but they are opened up for us in the other life: 2494. People who have truths from leading a good life become angels after they die: 8747.

[5] Truths that arise from goodness come in something like successive generations: 9079. They are arranged in sequences: 5339, 5343, 5530, 7408, 10303. The arrangement of truths that arise from goodness is like that of the fibers and blood vessels in our bodies and the complex tissues and structures they form to serve the useful functions of life: 3470, 3570, 3579, 9454. Truths that arise from goodness take the form of a kind of city within us, and this is caused by an inflow from heaven: 3584. At the center are the truths that accompany our primary love, while other concepts are distanced from that center to the extent that they fail to harmonize with [the central truths]: 3993, 4551, 4552, 5530, 6028. For evil people, though, falsity is at the center: 4551, 4552. When the truths we have are a result of our leading a good life, they are arranged in heaven's form (4302, 5339, 5343, 5704, 6028, 10303); and this agrees with the pattern in which heavenly communities are arranged (10303). All truths that result from leading a good life are connected to each other by a kind of kinship, like the branches of families descended from the same ancestor: 2863. Everything true also has an aura ³ reaching out from it into heaven according to the nature and extent of the goodness that is its source: 8063. The marriage of what is good and what is true is the church and heaven for us: 2731, 7752, 7753, 9224, 9995, 10122. The pleasure and happiness felt by people whose truths have goodness inside them: 1470.

[6] When our truths are brought together by goodness, they present an image of us: 8370. As individuals, we are nothing more nor less than our goodness and truth, or our evil and falsity: 10298.

[7] To summarize, we come to faith through truths: 4353, 7178, 10367. We come to caring about our neighbor through truths: 4368, 7623, 7624, 8034. We come to love for the Lord through truths: 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645. We come to conscience through truths: 1077, 2053, 9113. We come to innocence through truths: 3183, 3494, 6013. We come to purification from evils through truths: 2799, 5954, 7044, 7918, 9088, 10229, 10237. We come to regeneration through truths: 1555, 1904, 2046, 2189, 9088, 9959, 10028. We come to intelligence and wisdom through truths: 3182, 3190, 3387, 10064. Truths beautify angels and therefore also beautify us at the deeper levels of our spirit: 553, 3080, 4985, 5199. We gain power against things that are evil and false through truths: 3091, 4015, 10488. Truths are means of bringing [inner things] into the kind of order that is characteristic of heaven: 3316, 3417, 3570, 5339, 5343, 5704, 6028, 10303. We come to the church through truths: 1798, 1799, 3963, 4468, 4672. We come to heaven through truths: 1900, 9832, 9931, 10303. We become human through truths: 3175, 3387, 8370, 10298. All these things come about, though, by means of truths that arise from goodness and not from truths apart from goodness; and goodness comes from the Lord: 2434, 4070, 4736, 5147. All that is good comes from the Lord: 1614, 2016, 2904, 4151, 9981.

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