4214. 'And in the morning Laban rose up early' means the enlightenment of that good by the Lord's Divine Natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'in the morning rising up early' as enlightenment, dealt with in 3458, 3723, and from the representation of 'Laban' as good such as exists with gentiles, dealt with in 4189. It is evident from the train of thought that the enlightenment of this good by the Lord's Divine Natural is what is meant here. As regards enlightenment, all enlightenment is received from the Lord; it comes by way of the good present in a person, the exact nature of the enlightenment depending on the nature of that good there.

[2] Most people believe that the enlightened consist of those who are able to reason about what is good and true, or about what is evil and false, and that the measure of their enlightenment increases in direct proportion to their growing ability to speak about those things with greater precision and accuracy, and at the same time to back up what they say with many facts, and also to make their assertions ring true by the use of comparisons drawn mainly from sensory evidence and by the use of other convincing ways of presentation. These reasoners however, in spite of all their mental and perceptive ability, are incapable of being enlightened at all. Two different kinds of mental and perceptive ability exist, the first of which comes from the light of heaven, the second from an illusory light. Both kinds look the same in outward form but are entirely different in internal form. That which comes from the light of heaven exists within good, that is, it exists with people who are governed by good. By virtue of that good they are able to see what is true, and to know - clear as daylight - whether something is right or not. But the kind which comes from the illusory light exists within evil, that is, with people who are governed by evil. The reason why they are able to reason about the things mentioned is that they do have a capacity to know them but no desire to practice them, a situation in which, as anyone can see, no enlightenment is present.

[3] With regard to illusory light and its existence in the next life, the following may be said: People who have dwelt in such light in the world dwell in a similar light in the next life. There also they reason about what is good and true, and about what is evil and false, doing so indeed far more perfectly and completely than during their lifetime since their thoughts are not held back and inhibited in that life by the cares which belong to the body and the world, nor are they so confined within them as they had been when in the body and the world. But it is immediately apparent, not to them but to good spirits and to angels, that their reasonings are the product of illusory light and that the light of heaven flowing in with them is instantly converted into that inferior kind of light. That which begins with them as the light of heaven is either stifled, as when sunlight falls on something opaque and turns black, or is cast back, as happens with people under the influence of false assumptions, or else is perverted, as when sunlight strikes objects that are offensive and foul and produces offensive colours as well as offensive odours. It is similar with people who dwell in illusory light and believe that they are more enlightened than everybody else because of their ability to reason intelligently and wisely, even though they lead evil lives.

[4] Who these spirits are and what they are really like is evident from every syllable of what they say, so long as they are simulating what is good with the intent to deceive. Such spirits include those who deny the Lord or hold Him in contempt, and among themselves mock those who do confess Him. Also included are those who delight in adultery and deride people who believe that marriages are holy and ought never to be dishonoured. Among such spirits too are those who believe that the commands and teachings of the Church are intended for the common people, who by means of them may be kept in bonds; but among themselves those spirits set no value at all on those commands and teachings. Likewise included are those who attribute all things to nature and suppose people to be simpletons and weak in judgement who claim that all things come from the Divine. Spirits who ascribe every single thing to their own prudence, and who have convinced themselves of the idea and say that a Supreme Being exists who has a kind of general or overall control of things but no particular or specific control of them, are included too. And the same applies to other cases.

[5] People like these dwell in illusory light in the next life also, where among those like themselves they reason with precision. But when they approach any heavenly community that light goes out and turns into darkness. As a consequence their thought is so beclouded that they are not in fact able to think at all. For the light of heaven there has an adverse effect on them, which with them, as has been stated, is either stifled or cast back or perverted. As a result they reel back from there and cast themselves down into hell, where that kind of light shines. These considerations show what true enlightenment is, namely that which is a product of good originating in the Lord, and what false enlightenment is, namely that which is a product of evil originating in hell.

3665. 'To the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother' means a parallel external good, and the truth which sprang from this good and was to be joined [to the good of the natural]. This is clear from the representation of 'Bethuel' as good existing with those who make up a first group of gentiles, dealt with in 2865; from the representation of 'Laban' as the affection for good in the natural man, that is, the affection for external good, strictly speaking a parallel good that springs from a common stock, dealt with in 3129, 3130, 3160, 3612; and from the meaning of 'taking a wife from his daughters' as being brought into association with or joined to affections for truth from that source. For 'taking a wife', as is self-evident, means being joined to, and 'daughters' means affections, see 568, 2362, 3024. From this it is clear what those words mean, namely that the good of the natural represented here by 'Jacob' was to be joined to truths which came from a parallel external good.

[2] The implications of this are that when a person is being regenerated the Lord leads him first of all as an infant, then as a child, after that as a young person, and at length as an adult. The truths which he learns as a small child are totally external and bodily, for he is not yet capable of grasping more interior things. Those truths are no more than cognitions of such things as inmostly contain Divine things within them. For there are some cognitions of things which do not inmostly contain anything Divine and there are other cognitions which do. Cognitions that do contain the Divine inmostly are such that they can receive interior truths into themselves, increasingly so, one after another in their proper order, whereas cognitions that do not contain the Divine are such that they do not so receive them but spurn them. For the cognitions of external and bodily good and truth are like the soil which, depending on its own particular nature, receives into itself one kind of seed but not another, and is productive of one variety of seed but is destructive of another. Cognitions which inmostly contain the Divine receive spiritual and celestial truth and good into themselves, for it is by virtue of the Divine within, bringing order to them, that makes them what they are. But cognitions that do not contain the Divine receive only falsity and evil, such being their nature. Those cognitions of external and bodily truth which do receive spiritual and celestial truth and good are meant here by 'the daughters of Laban from the home of Bethuel', while those that do not receive them are meant by 'the daughters of Canaan'.

[3] The cognitions which people learn from infancy onwards into childhood are like very general vessels, which exist to be filled with goods. And as they are filled a person is enlightened. If the vessels are such that they can contain genuine goods within them, the person is in that case enlightened, step by step and increasingly so from the Divine that is within them. But if they are such that they cannot contain genuine goods within them he is not in that case enlightened. He may indeed give the appearance of being enlightened, but this comes about from the illusory light that goes with falsity and evil. Indeed those cognitions place him all the more in obscurity as regards good and truth.

[4] Such cognitions are manifold, so manifold that one can hardly count even the genera of them, let alone identify their species. For they derive in their multiplicity from the Divine and then pass by way of the rational into the natural. That is to say, certain of them flow in directly by way of the good of the rational, and from there into the good of the natural, and also into the truth that goes with that good, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, where also they depart into various channels; but others flow in indirectly by way of the truth of the rational into the truth of the natural, and also into the good that goes with this truth, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, see 3573, 3616. All this is like nations, families, and houses, in which there are blood relatives and relatives by marriage; that is to say, there are those in the direct line of descent from the chief ancestor and there are those belonging to an increasingly indirect or parallel line. In the heavens these things are quite distinct and separate, for all the communities there are distinguished according to genera and species of good and truth, and so according to how near they are in relation to one another, 685, 2508, 2524, 2556, 2739, 3612. The most ancient people, being celestial, also represented those communities by their dwelling as distinct and separate nations, families, and houses, 470, 471, 483, 1159, 1246. This was also the reason why members of the representative Church were commanded to contract marriages within the families which made up their own nation; for by so doing they could represent heaven and the interconnection of its communities as regards good and truth. That representation is exemplified here by Jacob's going to the home of Bethuel his mother's father and his taking a wife for himself from there from the daughters of Laban his mother's brother.

[5] As regards cognitions themselves of external or bodily truth which come from a parallel good and, as has been stated, contain the Divine and so are able to receive genuine truths within them, they are like cognitions present with small children who at a later time undergo regeneration. They are in general such as those that are found in the historical narratives of the Word, for example, in what is said there about Paradise, about the first human being in Paradise, about the tree of life in the middle of it, and about the tree of knowledge where the deceiving serpent was. These are cognitions which contain the Divine and which receive spiritual and celestial goods and truths into themselves because they represent and mean these. Such cognitions also constitute all the other descriptions in historical narratives of the Word, for example, those in the Word concerning the Tabernacle, concerning the Temple, and concerning the construction of these; likewise what is said about Aaron's vestments and those of his sons; also about the feasts of tabernacles, of first fruits, and of unleavened bread, and about other matters of a similar nature. When these and similar details are known and thought about by a small child, the thoughts of the angels residing with him at that time are concerned with the Divine things which they represent and mean. And because the angels are stirred by an affection for these things, that affection is communicated. This produces the joy and delight that the child gets out of them, and it prepares his mind for the reception of genuine truths and goods. These and very many others are the cognitions of external and bodily truth that come from a parallel good.