9688. 'The work of an embroiderer' means things that belong to factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'the work of an embroiderer', or embroidery, as factual knowledge. A large number of places in the Word speak of that which has been embroidered and of embroidery, and in every case factual knowledge is meant by it. The reason for this goes back to representatives in the next life; there garments embroidered in various ways are seen, and by these garments truths on the level of factual knowledge are meant.

[2] Truths on the level of factual knowledge differ from those on the level of the understanding in the same way as outward things differ from inward ones, or as the natural level with a person differs from the spiritual. Facts serve the understanding as objects from which it may deduce truths; for the power of understanding is the internal or spiritual man's power of sight, and known facts are its objects in the external or natural man. These facts are meant by 'the work of an embroiderer' whereas that power of understanding is meant by 'the work of a designer', 9598, for designing is a function of the understanding, and embroidering a function of the knowledge and skill employed by the understanding. This explains why the objects within the dwelling-place, which were signs meaning inner realities, were the work of a designer, such as the curtains that formed it, verse 1, and the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies, verse 31. But the objects which were signs meaning outer realities were the work of an embroiderer, such as the screen in place of a tent door, and the screen in place of a gate of the court, Exodus 38:18, and also the girdle, Exodus 39:29, 'the girdle' being what is external linking everything internal, 'the court' being the lowest part of heaven, and 'the tent door' the place where there is an exit from the middle heaven into the lowest.

[3] The fact that 'embroidery' and that which has been 'embroidered' mean factual knowledge belonging to the external or natural man is clear from the following places in the Word: In Ezekiel,

Fine linen with embroidery from Egypt was your sail; violet and purple from the islands of Elishah was your covering. Syria was your merchant by reason of the multitude of your handiworks; [they exchanged for your wares] chrysoprase and purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen. The merchants of Sheba [came] with balls of violet and with embroidered work. Ezekiel 27:7, 16, 24.

This refers to Tyre, by which those in possession of cognitions or knowledge of truth and good are meant, and in the abstract sense those cognitions themselves, 1201. 'Fine linen with embroidery' means truth on the level of factual knowledge, for 'fine linen' means truth from a celestial origin, 5319, 9469, and 'embroidery' is factual knowledge. This also is the reason why it says that it came from Egypt - for 'Egypt' means factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 2588, 4749, 4964, 4966, 5700, 5702, 6004, 6015, 6125, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, 6750, 7779 (end), 9391 - and also from Syria and from Sheba, since cognitions of truth and good are meant by 'Syria', 1232, 1234, 3051, 3249, 3664, 3680, 4112, and in like manner by 'Sheba', 1171, 3240. Cognitions of truth and good constitute the Church's factual knowledge. Anybody endowed with the ability to think intelligently and weigh things up can see that in these verses from Ezekiel one should not understand embroidery, fine linen, violet, or purple, but that these commodities mean things such as are worthy of mention in the Word, namely spiritual realities that belong to heaven and the Church.

[4] In the same prophet,

All the princes of the sea will step down from upon their thrones, and will cast away their robes and will strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with tremblings. Ezekiel 26:16.

This too refers to Tyre. 'The princes of the sea' are the first and foremost known facts, which are called dogmas, 'princes' meaning things which are first and foremost, see 1482, 2089, 5044, and 'the sea' factual knowledge in general 28, 2850. 'Robes' are external truths, 'embroidered' are truths on the level of factual knowledge, which too are external ones. For the meaning of 'garments' as truths, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6917, 6918, 9093, 9158, 9212, 9216.

[5] In the same prophet,

I clothed you with embroidered cloth, and shod you with badger; I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk. Thus were you adorned with gold and silver; and your garments were fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. But you took your embroidered garments and covered the images, with which you committed whoredom. ¹ Ezekiel 16:10, 13, 18.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which the Church is meant. 'Embroidered garments' stands for truths on the level of factual knowledge. 'Covering the images, with which she committed whoredom' stands for giving strength to falsities, for 'committing whoredom' means perverting truths by bringing them into contact with falsities or with evils. Is there anyone who cannot see that since these verses describe Jerusalem 'fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth' are not used to mean fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth? Yet what they really mean the Christian world does not seek to know, because it supposes that heavenly and spiritual matters in the Word reside in its literal sense; the more internal contents of the Word it calls mystical, but has no interest in them.

[6] In the same prophet,

A great eagle with great wings, with long pinions, full of feathers, ² which had embroidery ... Ezekiel 17:3.

This refers to the house of Israel, which means the spiritual Church; and this Church is called 'an eagle' by virtue of its perception of truth, 3901, 8764, 'which had embroidery' standing for its possession of factual knowledge. In David,

All glorious is the king's daughter within, in her clothing with gold interweavings; in an embroidered [robe] she will be led to the king. Psalms 45:13-14.

'The king's daughter' stands for an affection for truth, 'an embroidered [robe]' for factual knowledge of truth. In the Book of Judges,

Will they not divide the spoil, ... the spoil of colours for Sisera, the spoil of colours of embroidered work, embroiderers' colour - on the necks of the spoil? ³ Judges 5:30.

In this verse, which is part of the Song of Deborah and Barak, 'embroidered [work]' stands for factual knowledge belonging to the natural man.

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1999. That 'Abram fell on his face' ¹ means adoration is clear without explanation. Falling on one's face' was the reverent way in which the Most Ancient Church, and as a consequence the ancients, expressed adoration. The reason they expressed it in this way was that 'the face' meant the inward parts, and 'falling on one's face' ¹ represented a state of humiliation of those inward parts; and from this it became in the Jewish representative Church an act of reverence. True adoration or humility of heart entails prostration before the Lord face-downwards on the ground as the natural action resulting from it. Indeed humiliation of heart entails the acknowledgement of oneself as being nothing but uncleanness, and at the same time the acknowledgement of the Lord's infinite mercy towards such. When these acknowledgements are fixed in the mind, the mind itself casts itself down towards hell and prostrates the body. Nor does it raise itself until raised up by the Lord, as happens in all true humiliation, accompanied by a perception that such raising up is of the Lord's mercy. Such was the humiliation of members of the Most Ancient Church. It is different however with adoration which does not flow from humiliation of heart, see 1153.

[2] It is well known from the Word, in the Gospels, that the Lord adored and prayed to Jehovah, His Father, and that He did so as though to Someone other than Himself, even though Jehovah was within Him. But the state that the Lord experienced at such times was the state of His humiliation, the nature of which has been discussed in Volume One, namely this, that at such times as these He was in the infirm human derived from the mother. But to the extent He cast this off and took on the Divine His state was different, which state is called the state of His glorification. In the first state He adored Jehovah as Someone other than Himself, even though He was within Him, for, as has been stated, His Internal was Jehovah. In the latter state however, that is to say, the state of glorification, He spoke to Jehovah as to Himself, since He was Jehovah Himself.

[3] The truth of all this however cannot be grasped unless one knows what the internal is and how the internal operates into the external, and furthermore how the internal and external are distinct and separate and yet joined together. The matter may be illustrated however by means of something similar, namely by means of the internal with man and of its influx and operation into the external with him. For the fact that man has an internal, an interior or rational, and an external, see what has appeared already in 1889, 1940. Man's internal is that which makes him human and distinguishes him from animals. It is by means of this internal that man lives on after death and for ever, and by means of it the Lord can raise him up among angels. It is the prior or primary form from which anyone becomes and is a human being, and it is by means of this internal that the Lord is united to man. The heaven itself that is nearest to the Lord consists of these human internals, but being above even the inmost angelic heaven these internals therefore belong to the Lord Himself. In this way the entire human race is directly present beneath the eyes of the Lord. Distance, a visible feature of this sublunary world, does not exist in heaven, still less above heaven - see what has been mentioned from experience in 1275, 1277.

[4] These inward aspects of men possess no life in themselves but are recipient forms of the Lord's life. To the extent then that anyone is under the influence of evil, both that of his own doing and that which is hereditary, he has been so to speak separated from this internal which is the Lord's and resides with the Lord, and so has been separated from the Lord. For although that human internal is joined to the person and cannot be separated from him, yet to the extent he moves away from the Lord he does in a way separate himself from it, see 1594. But such separation is not a complete severance from that human internal - for if it were, man would no longer be able to live after death; but it is a lack of harmony and agreement with it on the part of his capacities which are beneath it, that is, of his rational and external man. Insofar as disharmony and disagreement are present there is no conjunction, but insofar as they are absent man is joined to the Lord by means of the internal, which is achieved in the measure that he is moved by love and charity, for love and charity effect conjunction. Such is the situation with man.

[5] But the Lord's Internal was Jehovah Himself, since He was conceived from Jehovah, who cannot be divided or become the relative of another, like a son who has been conceived from a human father. For unlike the human, the Divine is not capable of being divided but is and remains one and the same. To this Internal the Lord united the Human Essence. Moreover because the Lord's Internal was Jehovah it was not, like man's internal, a recipient form of life, but life itself. Through that union His Human Essence as well became life itself. Hence the Lord's frequent declaration that He is Life, as in John,

As the Father has Life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have Life in Himself. John 5:26.

And elsewhere besides this in the same gospel, 1:4; 5:21; 6:33, 35, 48; 11:25. 'The Son' is used to mean the Lord's Human Essence. To the extent therefore that the Lord was in the human which He received by heredity from the mother, He appeared to be distinct and separate from Jehovah, and worshipped Jehovah as Someone other than Himself. But to the extent He cast off this human, the Lord was not distinct and separate from Jehovah but one with Him. The first state, as has been mentioned, was the state of the Lord's humiliation, but the second the state of His glorification.

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