6348. 'because you went up to your father's bed' means because when separated from the good of charity faith is involved in a foul liaison. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up to his father's bed' as being involved in a foul liaison; that is to say, faith separated from charity is involved in it. For if faith in doctrine or the understanding, which 'Reuben' represents here, is not introduced to good and joined to it, it is either dissipated or ceases to be anything, or else it is introduced to evil and falsity and joined to them, which is the foul liaison that is meant. For then profanity comes about. The truth of this may be recognized from the fact that faith cannot have a dwelling-place anywhere else than within good; and if it does not have a dwelling-place there, then inevitably it ceases to be anything or is joined to evil. This is plainly evident from those people in the next life who have adhered to faith alone and not at all to charity. Their faith is dissipated in that life; or if it has been joined to evil, a lot among profaners awaits them.

[2] In the internal sense of the Word instances of adultery mean adulterations of good, while instances of whoredom mean falsifications of truth, 2466, 3399. But foul liaisons - which are called the forbidden degrees [of sexual relations], dealt with in Leviticus 18:6-24 - mean various kinds of profanation. Profanation is obviously meant here also since the words used are, 'You went up to your father's bed; at that time you profaned [it] - he went up to my couch'. Regarding the meaning of these words as the profanation of good by separated faith, see 4601, where that unspeakable deed performed by Reuben is dealt with.

[3] The nature of faith alone or faith separated from charity is such that if it is joined to evil - as happens when a person first believes the truth of faith, and especially when initially he leads a life in accordance with it but after that renounces it and leads a life contrary to it - profanity takes place. For the truth of faith and the good of charity first become rooted through doctrine and life in the person's interiors, after which they are called forth from there and are joined to evil. The lot that awaits the person in whom this happens is the worst of all in the next life; for with someone like that, good is incapable of being separated from evil, though they are nevertheless separated in the next life. Nor does someone like that have any remnants of good stored away in him interiorly because they have perished altogether in evil. Their hell is located on the left out in front, a considerable distance away; and those who are there look to the angels like skeletons, possessing scarcely any life. Therefore to avoid the occurrence of the profanation of goodness and truth, the person who - the Lord foresees - is the kind that will not allow himself to be regenerated is held back from faith and charity and is allowed to immerse himself in evil and consequently in falsity. For in this condition he cannot profane anything. See what has been stated and shown already about profanation in 301-303, 571, 582, 593, 1001, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 2426, 3398, 3399, 3402, 3489, 3898, 4289, 4601.

1008. 'Requiring the soul of man' is avenging profanation. This is clear from what has been stated in the previous verse and in the present one, for the subject is the eating of blood, which means profanation. Few know what profanation is, still less what the penalty for it may be in the next life. Profanation takes many forms. A person who totally denies the truths of faith does not profane them any more than gentiles do who live outside of the Church and outside of all knowledge of them. That person profanes however who does know the truths of faith, and still more one who acknowledges them, bears them on his lips, proclaims them, and persuades others of the truth of them, while at the same time he leads a life of hatred, revenge, cruelty, robbery, and adultery, and confirms such behaviour in himself by many statements which he scrapes together from the Word. He profanes by perverting the truths of faith, and so immerses them in those foul deeds. This is the person who profanes, and these are the things that above all else spell death to a person. That they spell death becomes clear from the fact that in the next life unholy things are completely separated from holy, the unholy being in hell, and the holy in heaven. When this type of person enters the next life, every idea within his thought contains holy things clinging to unholy, as it was during his lifetime. There he is unable to produce one idea of what is holy without the unholy that clings to it being seen clear as daylight; for such perception of another person's ideas exists in the next life. So in every detail of his thinking profanation manifests itself, and because heaven has such a horror of profanation he is inevitably forced down into hell.

[2] The nature of ideas is hardly known to anyone. People imagine that there is nothing complex about them, when in fact every idea within thought contains countless elements variously linked together so as to produce a certain form and consequent picture image of the person, the whole of which is perceived and even seen with the eyes in the next life. Take this merely as an example: When the idea of a place comes to mind - whether of a region, or a city, or a house - the idea and an image of all the things the person has ever done in that place crop up at the same time, and spirits and angels see them all. Or, if the idea of somebody whom he has hated presents itself, the idea of all he has thought, said, and done against that person arises at the same time. The same applies to ideas of all things, but when these present themselves every single detail that he has conceived of and impressed upon himself regarding a particular matter becomes apparent. For instance, if he has been an adulterer, when the idea of marriage crops up, all the muck and filth of adultery, even of thought about it, does so too, likewise all the arguments used to confirm adulterous practices, whether based on the evidence of the senses, or on rational grounds, or on the Word. And the way in which he has adulterated and perverted the truths of the Word crops up too.

[3] Furthermore, the idea of one thing merges into the idea of the next and colours it just as a tiny quantity of black placed in water darkens the whole volume of water. Consequently a spirit is recognized by his ideas, and what is remarkable, each one of his ideas bears his own image or likeness. When such an idea is presented visually it is so ugly that it is horrible to look at. All this makes clear the nature of the state of people who profane holy things, and the image they present in the next life. But people who in simplicity have believed statements made in the Word can never be said to profane holy things, not even if they have believed statements which are not literally true; for what is said in the Word is expressed in accordance with appearances, about which see 589.