1999. That 'Abram fell on his face' ¹ means adoration is clear without explanation. Falling on one's face' was the reverent way in which the Most Ancient Church, and as a consequence the ancients, expressed adoration. The reason they expressed it in this way was that 'the face' meant the inward parts, and 'falling on one's face' ¹ represented a state of humiliation of those inward parts; and from this it became in the Jewish representative Church an act of reverence. True adoration or humility of heart entails prostration before the Lord face-downwards on the ground as the natural action resulting from it. Indeed humiliation of heart entails the acknowledgement of oneself as being nothing but uncleanness, and at the same time the acknowledgement of the Lord's infinite mercy towards such. When these acknowledgements are fixed in the mind, the mind itself casts itself down towards hell and prostrates the body. Nor does it raise itself until raised up by the Lord, as happens in all true humiliation, accompanied by a perception that such raising up is of the Lord's mercy. Such was the humiliation of members of the Most Ancient Church. It is different however with adoration which does not flow from humiliation of heart, see 1153.

[2] It is well known from the Word, in the Gospels, that the Lord adored and prayed to Jehovah, His Father, and that He did so as though to Someone other than Himself, even though Jehovah was within Him. But the state that the Lord experienced at such times was the state of His humiliation, the nature of which has been discussed in Volume One, namely this, that at such times as these He was in the infirm human derived from the mother. But to the extent He cast this off and took on the Divine His state was different, which state is called the state of His glorification. In the first state He adored Jehovah as Someone other than Himself, even though He was within Him, for, as has been stated, His Internal was Jehovah. In the latter state however, that is to say, the state of glorification, He spoke to Jehovah as to Himself, since He was Jehovah Himself.

[3] The truth of all this however cannot be grasped unless one knows what the internal is and how the internal operates into the external, and furthermore how the internal and external are distinct and separate and yet joined together. The matter may be illustrated however by means of something similar, namely by means of the internal with man and of its influx and operation into the external with him. For the fact that man has an internal, an interior or rational, and an external, see what has appeared already in 1889, 1940. Man's internal is that which makes him human and distinguishes him from animals. It is by means of this internal that man lives on after death and for ever, and by means of it the Lord can raise him up among angels. It is the prior or primary form from which anyone becomes and is a human being, and it is by means of this internal that the Lord is united to man. The heaven itself that is nearest to the Lord consists of these human internals, but being above even the inmost angelic heaven these internals therefore belong to the Lord Himself. In this way the entire human race is directly present beneath the eyes of the Lord. Distance, a visible feature of this sublunary world, does not exist in heaven, still less above heaven - see what has been mentioned from experience in 1275, 1277.

[4] These inward aspects of men possess no life in themselves but are recipient forms of the Lord's life. To the extent then that anyone is under the influence of evil, both that of his own doing and that which is hereditary, he has been so to speak separated from this internal which is the Lord's and resides with the Lord, and so has been separated from the Lord. For although that human internal is joined to the person and cannot be separated from him, yet to the extent he moves away from the Lord he does in a way separate himself from it, see 1594. But such separation is not a complete severance from that human internal - for if it were, man would no longer be able to live after death; but it is a lack of harmony and agreement with it on the part of his capacities which are beneath it, that is, of his rational and external man. Insofar as disharmony and disagreement are present there is no conjunction, but insofar as they are absent man is joined to the Lord by means of the internal, which is achieved in the measure that he is moved by love and charity, for love and charity effect conjunction. Such is the situation with man.

[5] But the Lord's Internal was Jehovah Himself, since He was conceived from Jehovah, who cannot be divided or become the relative of another, like a son who has been conceived from a human father. For unlike the human, the Divine is not capable of being divided but is and remains one and the same. To this Internal the Lord united the Human Essence. Moreover because the Lord's Internal was Jehovah it was not, like man's internal, a recipient form of life, but life itself. Through that union His Human Essence as well became life itself. Hence the Lord's frequent declaration that He is Life, as in John,

As the Father has Life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have Life in Himself. John 5:26.

And elsewhere besides this in the same gospel, 1:4; 5:21; 6:33, 35, 48; 11:25. 'The Son' is used to mean the Lord's Human Essence. To the extent therefore that the Lord was in the human which He received by heredity from the mother, He appeared to be distinct and separate from Jehovah, and worshipped Jehovah as Someone other than Himself. But to the extent He cast off this human, the Lord was not distinct and separate from Jehovah but one with Him. The first state, as has been mentioned, was the state of the Lord's humiliation, but the second the state of His glorification.

Mga talababa:

1940. That 'I will multiply your seed greatly' means the fruitfulness of the rational man when it submits itself to the controlling power of the interior man allied to good is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as love and faith, dealt with already in 1025, 1447, 1610. Here however 'multiplying seed' means the fruitfulness within the rational of the celestial things of love when the rational has submitted itself to truth that is interior or Divine. 'Being multiplied' has reference to truths but 'being fruitful' to goods, as is clear from what has been stated and shown already in 43, 55, 913, 983. But as the subject is the Lord, 'being multiplied' means being fruitful for the reason that all truth within His Rational became good and so Divine; and this is what is being referred to here. In man's case it is different - his rational is formed by the Lord from truth or the affection for truth. This affection is in him good from which he acts.

[2] As regards multiplication and fruitfulness within man's rational, this cannot be understood unless one knows about influx, regarding which the following may be said of it in general: Within everybody, as stated already, there is the internal man, the rational man, which is in the middle, and the external man. The internal man is the inmost part of him by virtue of which he is a human being and which makes him distinct and separate from animals, which do not possess that inmost part. The internal man is so to speak the door or entrance for the Lord, that is, for celestial and spiritual things that are the Lord's, to come into a person. What goes on there the individual cannot comprehend since it is entirely above his rational from which he thinks. To this inmost or internal man the rational which appears as the person's own is subordinate. Into this rational by way of that internal man flow heavenly things of love and faith from the Lord; and by way of this rational they flow on into the facts that belong to the external man. But how these things flowing in are received depends on the individual person's state.

[3] Unless the rational is submissive to goods and truths that are the Lord's this rational either stifles, or rejects, or perverts the things that flow in, the more so when they flow into facts in the memory that are derived from sensory evidence. These things when so received are meant by the seed that falls either on the pathway, or over stony ground, or among thorns, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 13:3-7; Mark 4:3-7; Luke 8:5-7. But when the rational is submissive and believes the Lord, that is, His Word, the rational is like the ground or good soil into which the seed falls and bears much fruit.