1081. And shall make her desolate and naked, signifies rejection of its falsities, which are falsified truths, and then the manifestation that they were without any truth. This is evident from the signification of "making desolate and naked," as being to reject its falsities, which are falsified truths; and when these have been rejected it is manifest that there is no truth, this also is signified. "To be desolate and naked" signifies to be without any truth, for spiritual vastation and nakedness are signified; and spiritual vastation is like that in a desert where there is no grain and no fruit trees, and spiritual nakedness is like that of a man who has no garments. "Grain and fruit trees" signify knowledges of truth and good, and "garments" signify truths investing; therefore to be without these means to be without any truth. That "nakedness" means deprivation of truth may be seen (n. 240, 1008); and that "vastation," such as exists in a desert, means where there is no truth may be seen n. 730.

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[2] What the Word is as to influx and correspondences can now be illustrated. It is said in John:

He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn themselves and I should heal them (John 12:40).

The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and the love of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit profanation; for an evil man who is healed and who returns to his evil and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the Jewish nation.

[3] In Matthew:

Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16).

Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears" signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to hear" signifies to obey and live. For no one is blessed because he sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives.

[4] In the same:

The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid; if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened. If, therefore, the light [lumen] is darkness, how great is the darkness (Matthew 6:22-23).

Here, again, the "eye" signifies the understanding of truth and the belief in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from understanding and belief. And because a man becomes wise from understanding and believing in truth, it is said "if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid." The "body" means the man, and "to be lucid" means to be wise. But it is the reverse with the "evil eye," that is, understanding and believing in falsity. "Darkness" means falsities, "if the light [lumen] be darkness" signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, "If the light [lumen] be darkness, how great is the darkness."

[5] These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is, namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith, the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light [lumen] correspondences of truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the one is spiritual and the other natural, and the spiritual acts into the natural and forms it to an image of itself that it may appear before the eyes or before the world, therefore that action is influx. Such is the Word in each and every particular.

665. The spirit of life from God entered into them, signifies enlightenment and the reception of Divine truth from the Lord with some for the beginning of the New Church. This is evident from the signification of "the spirit of life from God," as being the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord (of which presently); also from the signification of "entering into them," namely, into the "witnesses" that were slain and cast forth, as being enlightenment and reception of influx, namely, of Divine truth, which is signified by "the spirit of life;" it means also with some for establishing the New Church, as is evident from the following verse, where it is said that "they went up into heaven in the cloud," thus it is meant with some, for "the two witnesses" signify the goods of love and the truths of doctrine, also they mean those with whom these goods and truths are, for all such are "witnesses."

[2] When the end of the church is at hand then it is provided by the Lord that a New Church shall succeed, for without a church in which is the Word and in which the Lord is known, the world cannot subsist; for without the Word, and thence the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, heaven cannot be conjoined to the human race, nor therefore can the Divine proceeding from the Lord flow in with new life; and without conjunction with heaven and through that with the Lord, man would not be a man, but a beast. This is why a New Church is always provided by the Lord when an old church comes to its end. Why the beginning only of the New Church and not yet its establishment is meant, shall be told in the explanation of the following verse.

[3] That "the spirit of life from God" or "the Spirit of God," and "the Holy Spirit," mean the Divine proceeding from the Lord, which is called the Divine truth, from which is all wisdom and intelligence, has been said and shown above (n. 24, 183, 318). This Divine proceeding is what enlightens man and flows into him when he is being reformed and regenerated, thus when the church is commencing and being established with him, as can be plainly seen from the passages quoted above from the Word n. 183, also from this in Ezekiel:

Jehovah said unto me, Prophesy about the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say unto the wind, Thus the Lord Jehovih hath said, Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. And when I had prophesied the spirit entered into them, and they revived and stood upon their feet, a very great army (Ezekiel 37:9, 10).

[4] This treats of "the dry bones" seen by the prophet upon the face of the valley, which signify the house of Israel, as is plainly declared in verse 11 of that chapter. "The house of Israel" signifies the church, and that house or church is here compared to "dry bones" because it had no good of love or truth of doctrine. The establishment of a New Church by the inbreathing of a new life, or by regeneration, is described by the "sinews, flesh, and skin," with which the bones were clothed and encompassed, and especially by the "spirit" that entered into them, and from which they lived; the "spirit" in them here signifies also the reception of the influx of Divine truth and consequent spiritual life. The prophet said to the wind, "Come from the four winds, O spirit," because "the four winds" signify the four quarters in the spiritual world, and the four quarters there signify the goods of love and the truths of doctrine in the whole complex. (On the signification of these see above, n. 417, 418, 419, 422, and in the work on Heaven and Hell 141-150.)