This can, of course, be a wonderful thing: It is essential for our journey to heaven, and is the reason for the holiness of marriage. But when the men represent falsity it can also be horrendously twisted, as in the attempted homosexual rape in Sodom (Genesis 19) and the rape of the concubine in Gibeah (Judges 19). In a general sense, men represent things of the intellect -- facts, ideas, knowledge, everything from the deepest truths to the most pernicious falsities about life and the Lord. Women in general represents things of affection -- desire, passion, caring, everything from the most exalted love for the Lord to the darkest hatred. When a man “knows” a woman in the Bible, then, it represents a joining together of those intellectual and affectionate faculties. “Know" is also often used in connection with virginity. A women who has “not known a man” represents the affection for truth, unsullied by falsity.

142. (ii) THE DIVINE POWER AND ACTIVITY MEANT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE, GENERALLY SPEAKING, REFORMATION AND REGENERATION, WHICH LEAD TO RENEWAL, QUICKENING, SANCTIFICATION AND JUSTIFICATION; AND THESE LEAD TO PURIFICATION FROM EVILS AND THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND ULTIMATELY TO SALVATION.

This is the series of virtues which the Lord produces in those who believe in Him, adapting and making themselves suitable for Him to be received and dwell in them. This is done by means of the Divine truth, and in the case of Christians by the Word; for this is the one and only means which allows a person to approach the Lord, and allows the Lord to come in to him. For, as stated before, the Lord is Divine truth itself, and so is whatever proceeds from Him. But it must be understood as Divine truth acting from good, which is the same as faith inspired by charity; for faith is nothing but truth, and charity is nothing but good. It is by means of Divine truth acting from good, in other words by means of faith inspired by charity that a person's reformation and regeneration is effected, and by this means too he is renewed, quickened and made holy and righteous. As all these processes advance and increase, he is cleansed from evils, and this cleansing is what is meant by the forgiveness of sins.

All of these processes effected by the Lord cannot here be discussed one by one, because each demands its own particular analysis, which must be proved from the Word and have light shed on it by the faculty of reason, and this is not the place for it. The reader is therefore referred to the following chapters of this book, which will deal in turn with charity, faith, free will, repentance, reformation and regeneration. It should be known that the Lord continually effects these means of salvation in the case of each individual, for they are steps to heaven, and the Lord desires the salvation of everyone. Thus the salvation of everyone is the end the Lord has in view, and to will the end is to will the means. His coming, redeeming and passion on the cross were all for the sake of man's salvation (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10). So because man's salvation was and ever will be His end, it follows that the various activities listed above are the mediate ends, and salvation is the ultimate end.