780. In order that the Lord could be constantly present with me, He has revealed to me the spiritual sense of His Word, in which Divine truth is illuminated by its own light, and in this He is continually present. For it is through the spiritual sense and in no other way that He is present in the Word. His presence passes through the light shed by the spiritual sense into the shadow which covers the literal sense. This may be compared with the sun's light in daytime obscured by an intervening cloud. I proved above that the literal sense of the Word is like a cloud, and its spiritual sense is the glory, and the Lord Himself is the sun which gives light, so that the Lord is the Word. It is clear from the following passages that the glory in which the Lord is to come (Matthew 24:30) means Divine truth in its own light, which contains the spiritual sense of the Word:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it, Isaiah 40:3, 5.

Shine, for your light has come and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you, Isaiah 60:1-end.

I shall make you to be a covenant for the people, a light for the nations; and my glory I shall not give to another, Isaiah 42:6, 8; 48:11.

Your light will burst forth like the dawn, the glory of Jehovah will gather you up, Isaiah 58:8.

The whole earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah, Numbers 14:21; Isaiah 6:1-3; 66:18.

In the beginning was the Word. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was the true light. And the Word was made flesh, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, John 1:1, 4, 9, 14.

The heavens will tell the glory of God, Psalms 19:1.

The Glory of God will give light to the Holy Jerusalem, and the Lamb will be its lantern; and the nations who are saved will walk in its ¹ light, Revelation 21:23-24.

There are many other similar passages. The reason why glory means Divine truth in its fulness is that everything magnificent in heaven is so because of the light, which is radiated from the Lord. And the light radiating from Him as the sun of heaven is in its essence Divine truth.

Фусноте:

2762. That a “horse” signifies the faculty of understanding is from no other source than the representatives in the other life. Often there, in the world of spirits, horses are seen, and this with great variety, and those also that sit on them; and whenever they are seen they signify the faculty of understanding. There are such representatives continually with spirits. It is from the representation of the horse, as being the understanding, that when horses are mentioned in the Word, the spirits and angels with man at once know that the understanding is what is treated of. It is also from this that when spirits from a certain distant world on being imbued with intelligence and wisdom are taken up from the world of spirits into heaven, there appear to them horses shining as with fire; which also I have seen when they were taken up.

[2] From this I could see what is signified by the chariot of fire and horses of fire seen by Elisha when Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven; as also what is signified by the exclamation of Elisha then: “My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:11-12); and by Joash king of Israel saying the same to Elisha when he was dying: “My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 13:14). That by Elijah and Elisha was represented the Lord as to the Word, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told elsewhere; the doctrine of love and charity from the Word being meant by the “chariot of fire,” and the doctrine of faith therefrom by the “horses of fire.” The doctrine of faith is the same as the understanding of the Word as to its interiors, or as to its internal sense.

[3] That chariots and horses are seen in the heavens with spirits and angels, is evident from the fact of their being seen by the prophets, as by Zechariah (Zechariah 1:8-10; 6:3-7), and by others, and also by Elisha’s servant, as thus described in the book of Kings:

Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha’s boy, and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

Moreover, where the abode of the intelligent and wise is, in the world of spirits, chariots and horses appear continually; for the reason as said that by chariots and horses are represented the things of wisdom and of intelligence. Resuscitated persons after death, who are entering into the other life, see represented to them a young man sitting upon a horse, and then alighting from the horse; and by this is signified that they are to be instructed in the knowledge of good and truth before they can come into heaven (see Part First,n. 187-188).

[4] That chariots and horses signified these things, was well known in the Ancient Church, as also is evident from the book of Job, which is a book of that Church, where are these words:

God hath made her to forget wisdom, and hath not imparted to her intelligence; what time she lifteth up herself on high she scorneth the horse and his rider (Job 39:17-19).

From the Ancient Church the signification of the horse, as being the faculty of understanding, was extended to the wise round about, even into Greece. From this it came to pass that when they described the sun (by which was signified love, n. 2441, 2495), they placed in it the god of their wisdom and intelligence, and gave him a chariot and four horses of fire; and that when they described the god of the sea, because by the sea were signified knowledges in general (n. 28, 2120), they gave horses also to him; and that when they described the rise of knowledges from the understanding, they represented a flying horse which with his hoof broke open a fountain, where dwelt the virgins that were the sciences; and by the Trojan horse nothing else was signified than a contrivance of their understanding for destroying city walls.

Even at this day the intellect is often described, according to the custom received from those ancient people, under the figure of a flying horse, or Pegasus; and learning is described as a fountain; but scarcely anyone knows that a horse, in the mystic sense, signifies the understanding, and a fountain truth; still less that these significatives were handed down to the Gentiles from the Ancient Church.

2495. CHAPTER 20

That the Word contains within it an internal sense that is not apparent in the letter has already been stated and shown in many places, and the nature of this internal sense appears from all that has thus far been unfolded, beginning with the first chapter of Genesis. Nevertheless as the few who at this day believe in the Word do not know that there is such a sense, it may be well to confirm it further.

[2] The Lord describes the Consummation of the Age, or the last period of the church, as follows:

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24).

That in this passage the “sun” does not mean the sun, nor the “moon” the moon, nor the “stars” the stars; but that the “sun” signifies love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor; the “moon” the faith of love and charity; and the “stars” the knowledges of good and truth, was shown above (n. 31, 32, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, 2441); so that by these words of the Lord there is signified that in the consummation of the age (or last period of the church) there will no longer be any love, or charity, nor therefore any faith.

[3] That this is the meaning is evident from similar words of the Lord in the Prophets, as in Isaiah:

Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, to make the earth a solitude; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it; for the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not shine with their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (Isaiah 13:9-10); where also the last period of the church, or what is the same, the consummation of the age, is treated of.

In Joel:

A day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of cloud and obscurity, before Him the earth quaked, the heavens trembled, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining (Joel 2:2, 10);

with a similar meaning. Again in the same:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah comes (Joel 2:31).

And again in the same:

The day of Jehovah is near, the sun and the moon have been darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining (Joel 3:14-15).

In Ezekiel:

When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine; all the luminaries of light in the heavens will I make dark, and will set darkness upon thy land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).

So too in John:

I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars fell unto the earth (Revelation 6:12-13).

The fourth angel sounded, so that the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, and the third part of them was darkened (Revelation 8:12).

[4] From these passages it is evident that the Lord’s words in the Evangelists involve much the same as His words in the Prophets, namely, that in the last times there will be neither charity, nor faith; and that this is the internal sense; as also is still further evident in Isaiah:

The moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, for Jehovah Zebaoth shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem (Isaiah 24:23).

That is to say, faith, which is the “moon,” shall blush; and charity, which is the “sun,” shall be ashamed, because they are such; for it cannot be said of the moon and the sun that they shall blush and be ashamed. And in Daniel:

The goat’s horn grew toward the south, and toward the east, and grew even to the army of the heavens, and some of the army and of the stars it cast down to the earth and trampled upon them (Daniel 8:9-10); where it is plain to everyone that the “army of the heavens” does not signify an “army,” nor the “stars” stars.