3043. Then thou shalt be clear from this mine oath. That this signifies the freedom belonging to the natural man, is evident from the signification of the “servant” of whom these things are said, as being the natural man (n. 3019); and from the signification of “being clear if the woman is not willing to follow,” as being in the proximate sense, that he would be under no pledge if the affection of truth should not be separated. That these words involve the freedom belonging to the natural man, is evident; for the affection of truth here treated of, and the separation also, are predicated in the internal sense of the natural man; in the historical sense there is another connection, but in the internal sense it is such as has been stated.

[2] Concerning man’s freedom, see what was said and shown above (n. 892, 905, 1937, 1947, 2744, 2870-2893) from which it is evident how the case is with freedom. Freedom is predicated of the natural man, but not in the same way of the rational; for good flows through the rational into the natural in heavenly freedom from the Lord. The natural man is that which is to receive this good; and in order that it may receive it, and may thus be conjoined with the heavenly freedom which flows in through the rational, the natural is left in freedom. For freedom is of love or affection; and unless the natural man receives the affection of truth from the inflowing affection of good, it cannot possibly be conjoined with the rational. Such is the case with man; and that he is reformed of the Lord through freedom may be seen (n. 1937, 1947, 2876-2878, 2881).

[3] In regard to the Lord, He likewise left the natural in freedom when He made His rational Divine as to truth; that is, when He adjoined Divine truth to the Divine good of the rational; for it was His will to make His Human Divine in the usual manner, that is, in the way in which man is reformed and regenerated. The reformation and regeneration of man is therefore itself a kind of image; by reformation and regeneration also a man is made new, and hence is said to be born anew and created new; and insofar as he is reformed, insofar he has as it were what is Divine in him. But there is this difference, that the Lord made Himself Divine from His own power, while man cannot do the least thing from his own power, but only from the Lord. It is said “as it were what is Divine,” because man is but a recipient of life; whereas the Lord as to each essence is life itself (see n. 1954, 2021, 2658, 2706, 3001).

2706. God was with the child. That this signifies the Lord’s presence with the spiritual, is evident from the signification of “God being with” anyone, and from the signification of the “child.” That “God being with” anyone signifies the Lord’s presence, is evident without explication. The Lord is indeed present with everyone; for life is from no other source, and He governs the most minute things of it, even with the worst of men, and in hell itself; but in various ways according to the reception of life. With those who receive the life of the love of His good and truth in a wrong manner, and pervert it into loves of evil and falsity, the Lord is present, and overrules their ends as far as possible for good; but His presence with them is called absence, and indeed in the same degree in which evil is distant from good, and falsity from truth. But with those who receive the life of the love of the Lord’s good and truth, He is said to be present, and indeed according to the degree of reception. It is with the Lord’s presence as with that of the sun, which is present with its heat and light in the vegetation of the world also according to the reception.

That the “child” signifies the spiritual as to truth, has been said above; but here he signifies those who are spiritual because he represents the man of the spiritual church, and also the spiritual church itself, and in the universal sense the Lord’s spiritual kingdom; for when it is said that anyone signifies what is spiritual, as here that “the child” signifies the spiritual as to truth, it involves that those are signified who are spiritual; for there is no spiritual without a subject. It is the same with all other things said in an abstract sense.