8993. 'And when a man sells his daughter to be a female slave' means an affection for truth springing from natural delight. This is clear from the meaning of 'a man's daughter' as an affection for truth, for an affection is meant by 'daughter', dealt with in 2362, 3963, while truth is meant by 'a man', 3134, as it also is by an Israelite, whom 'a man' refers to here, 5414, 5879, 5951, 7957, 8234; and from the meaning of 'a female slave' as an external or natural affection, dealt with in 2567, 3835, 3849. Consequently 'a man's daughter sold as a female slave' means an affection for truth springing from natural affection and delight.

[2] By natural delight one should understand delight emanating from self-love and love of the world. The people with an affection for truth emanating from these kinds of love are those who learn the teachings of the Church, called the truths of faith, either for the sake of gain or for the sake of important positions, and not for the sake of the life they should lead. Since affections such as this do not emanate from spiritual good but from natural delight they are represented by the daughter of an Israelite man sold as a female slave or servant-girl. For whatever owes its origin to self-love or love of the world is not freedom but slavery. What freedom and slavery are, see 892, 905, 1947, 2870-2893, 6205. The nature of affection for truth arising from those kinds of love is described in the internal sense of what follows next.

[3] It should be borne in mind that a genuine affection for truth consists in willing and desiring to know the real truths of faith with a view to putting them to good use and for the sake of the life one should lead. But an affection for truth which is not genuine consists in willing and desiring truths for selfish reasons, that is, in order to acquire important positions and make monetary gain. Those with an affection for truth that has this origin do not care whether the truths they learn are genuine or not, provided that they are such as can be palmed off as truths. This being so, they confine themselves to endorsing the teachings of the Church in which they were born, regardless of whether those teachings are true or not. They are also in the dark so far as real truths are concerned; for worldly ends or gains, and selfish ¹ ends or important positions make people completely blind.

[4] But those with a genuine affection for truth, that is, those who desire to know truths to put them to good use and for the sake of the life they ought to lead, they too keep to the teachings of the Church, until they reach the age when they begin to think for themselves. Then they examine the Scriptures and pray to the Lord for enlightenment; and when they receive it, their hearts rejoice. For they know that if they had been born where the teachings of the Church are different, indeed where the greatest heresy exists, then - if they had not examined Scripture from a genuine affection for truth - they would have remained in it, as for example they would have done if they had been born Jews, or they had been born Socinians. All this shows who exactly those people are, and what they are like, who have a genuine affection for truth, and who they are, and what they are like, who have an affection for truth that is not genuine. Those with a genuine affection for truth are meant in the representative sense by the daughters of Israelite men; but those with an affection for truth that is not genuine are meant in the representative sense by female slaves from among the daughters of Israel, who are the subject at present.

Fusnotat:

3849. 'And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah his servant-girl - to her to be a servant-girl' means exterior affections which are subservient bonds or means. This is clear from what has been stated above in 3835. The reason 'Bilhah the servant-girl' means exterior affections, and 'Zilpah, Leah's servant-girl' external affections, is that 'Rachel' represents the affection for internal truth and 'Leah' the affection for external truth. Exterior affections are natural affections subservient to internal. The reason these exterior affections are means that serve in the joining of truth to good is that no matter of doctrine, nor indeed any item of knowledge, can enter anyone except by means of affections. For affections hold life within themselves, but truths which belong to doctrine and knowledge do not without those affections hold it within themselves. The truth of this is quite evident, for without affection no one can even think, or indeed utter a single word. Anyone who gives this matter any consideration will perceive that a voice devoid of affection is the voice of an automaton and so simply a sound with no life to it; but that when it does have affections present in it the amount and the nature of that affection determines the amount and the nature of the life present in it. This shows what truths are without good, and that the affection present in truths springs from good.

[2] Anyone who gives the matter any consideration may also be aware of the same point from the fact that the human understanding is no understanding unless the will is present in it, for the life of the understanding is received from the will. This consideration too shows what truths are without good, namely that they are not truths at all, and that good is the source from which they draw their life; for truths belong to the understanding part of the mind and good to the will part. From this anyone is able to judge for himself what faith, which essentially is truth, is when devoid of charity, which essentially is good, and to judge that the truths of faith when devoid of the good of charity are dead, for as has been stated, the amount of affection present in truths, and the nature of it, determine the amount and nature of the life present there. But what give truths the appearance of still possessing life even when the good of charity is absent are the affections that go with self-love and love of the world, which possess no other life than that which in the spiritual sense is called death and is the life of hell. The word affection is used, and by that is meant that which is an extension from some love.

[3] From these considerations it may now be seen that affections are meant that serve in the joining of truth and good, and that affections are the means by which truths are introduced and also by which these are arranged into order. Genuine affections which go with love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour bring them into a heavenly order, but evil affections which go with self-love and love of the world bring them into a hellish order, that is, into that which is the contrary of heavenly order.

[4] The most external affections of all are those which belong to the body and are called appetites and desires. Those immediately interior to these belong to the lower mind (animus) and are called natural affections. But internal affections belong to the rational mind find are called spiritual affections. To the latter, that is to say, to spiritual affections which belong to the higher mind (mens), truths expressed in matters of doctrine are introduced by means of the more external and the most external affections, that is, by natural and bodily ones. These are consequently subservient means and are meant by the servant-girls given by Laban to Rachel and to Leah. When they are called Laban's servant-girls the meaning is that those affections had their origin in the good represented by Laban, a good dealt with already. For the truths that are learned first cannot at first be instilled by means of any other affections. Genuine affections arrive in the process of time, but not until a person is acting from good.