30. Unto Him that loveth us, and washeth us from our sins in His blood, signifies His love, and regeneration by truths that are from Him. This is evident from the signification of "washing from sins," as meaning to regenerate (See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 202-209); and from the signification of "in His blood," as meaning by truths that are from Him (See in the same Doctrine, n. 210-213; and in the extracts from the Arcana Coelestia there, n. 217, 219, 222). That the Lord's "blood" signifies truths from good, thus truths from the Lord, can with difficulty be seen and believed by a man who knows nothing of the internal sense of the Word; moreover, it seems far-fetched to understand truths from the Lord in place of His blood; and yet in heaven nothing else is understood by the Lord's blood. This is because the Lord there is Divine truth united to Divine good, consequently no one there thinks of His flesh and blood. Thought concerning these they call material thought, of which there is none with them. They say, moreover, that they are not aware that flesh and blood are mentioned in the Word; for with them the things belonging to the literal sense of the Word, are changed into spiritual ideas, since they themselves are spiritual and not natural; thus "flesh" when ascribed to the Lord, is changed into Divine good, and "blood" into Divine truth, each proceeding from the Lord.

[2] "Flesh" and "blood" are mentioned in the literal sense of the Word, in order that corresponding spiritual things may be perceived in heaven; for all spiritual things terminate in natural things; in them they have their outmost plane, therefore the Divine passing through the heavens terminates in that plane, and thereon subsists, comparatively like a house on its foundation, and is then in its fullness. This is why the Word is such as it is in the letter, and why "flesh" and "blood" are there mentioned; the angels, however, are astonished that the man of the church, who might also be made spiritual from the Word, does not allow himself to be elevated above the sense of the letter, and thinks not spiritually but materially of the Lord, and of His flesh and blood. But because they so wondered, and it was told them that many, especially the simple, do think spiritually about these things, they explored whether it was so; and they discovered that many, and almost all the simple, when they come to the holy supper do not think at all about flesh and blood, but only of that which is holy which they then have from the Lord. The angels perceived that this is continually provided by the Lord, in order that the man of the church may then be in a spiritual and not in a material idea.

[3] The reason why material eating is understood and adopted in doctrines, is because men have thought of the Human of the Lord as of the human of another man, and have not then thought at the same time of the Divine in His Human, rejecting the expression, "Divine Human;" and they that so thought of the Lord's Human could not think otherwise than materially of His flesh and blood. It would have been different if they had thought of the Lord according to the universal doctrine of the church, which is, that His Divine and Human is one person, the two being united as soul and body (See above, n. 10, 26). Moreover, "blood" is mentioned in many places in the Word, as also elsewhere in Revelation (as in Revelation 6:12; 7:14; 8:7-8; 11:6; 12:11; 14:20; 16:3-4, 6; 18:24; 19:2, 13). I purpose, therefore, in the following pages, to confirm fully that by "blood" is signified truth from the Lord, and in an opposite sense falsity that offers violence to that truth.

6. I need to explain briefly what "Jerusalem" means in the spiritual meaning of the Word. "Jerusalem" means the essential church, with a focus on its body of teaching. This is because there in the land of Canaan and nowhere else were the Temple and the altar, there and nowhere else were sacrifices offered and consequently was actual worship of God performed. That is why the three annual festivals ¹ were held there, and every male in the whole land was obliged to attend. That is why Jerusalem now, spiritually understood, means the church in regard to its worship or to its body of teaching-which amounts to the same thing, because its worship is defined by its body of teaching and performed as that body of teaching prescribes.

The reason it says "the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven" is that in the spiritual meaning of the Word "a city" means a body of teaching, and "a holy city" means a body of teaching based on divine truth. This is because divine truth is what the Word refers to as "holy. " It says "the New Jerusalem" for much the same reason that it refers to the earth as new. That is, as just noted [§5], "the earth" means the church and Jerusalem means that church in regard to its body of teaching. It is described as coming down from God out of heaven because all the divine truth that gives rise to a body of teaching comes down out of heaven from God.

It is obvious that "Jerusalem" does not mean a city (even though it looked like a city), because it says that its height was the same as its length and breadth, twelve thousand stadia (verse 16); that the measure of its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits, was the measure of a human being, that is, of an angel (verse 17); that it was prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (verse 2); and that later "The angel said, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. ' And he showed me the holy city Jerusalem" (verses 9, 10). It is the church that is called the Lord's bride and wife in the Word, his "bride" before they have been joined together and his "wife" afterward-see Secrets of Heaven 3103, 3105, 3164, 3165, 3207, 7022, 9182.

Notas de rodapé: