8081. 'And it shall be when your son asks you' means perception springing from truth that belongs to conscience. This is clear from the meaning of 'asking' as knowledge gained by perception, dealt with in 5597, 5800, 6250; and from the meaning of 'son' as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373. The fact that perception springing from truth that belongs to conscience is meant is evident from the explanation in 7935, where similar words occur. The expression 'springing from truth that belongs to conscience' is used because the conscience of members of the spiritual Church is a conscience composed of truth; for it is acquired from the things taught by the Church which are believed to be truths, whether they are in fact truths or not. But they become matters of conscience when they also become matters of life.

533. Since nothing further is mentioned about Lamech apart from the fact that be beget sons and daughters, who are the conceptions and births of such a Church, there is no need to pause any longer over him. What these births, or sons and daughters, were, becomes clear from the Church, for the character of a Church determines that of its offspring. Both those Churches called Methuselah and Lamech breathed their last just before the flood.