AUTHOR’S TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.

The Heavenly Arcana which have been unfolded in the Holy Scripture or Word of the Lord are contained in the Explication, which is the INTERNAL SENSE of the Word. What the nature of this sense is may be seen in those things which have been shown concerning it from Experience in numbers 1767-1777, and 1869-1879; and also in the context (n. 1-5, 64-66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 at the end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1783, 1807).

The Wonderful Things which have been seen in the Word of Spirits and in the heaven of Angels, are prefixed and subjoined to the several chapters. In this volume are the following:—

Concerning the Resuscitation of man from the dead, and his entrance into eternal life (n. 168-181).

Continuation concerning the entrance of man into eternal life (n. 182-189; also 314-319).

What the next life of the Soul or Spirit then is (n. 320-323).

Some examples from Spirits of what they had thought in the life of the body about the Soul or Spirit (n. 443-448).

Concerning Heaven and Heavenly Joy (n. 449-459; also 537-546; and 547-553).

Concerning the Societies which constitute Heaven (n. 684-691).

Concerning Hell (n. 692-700).

Concerning the Hells of those who have passed their life in Hatred, Revenge, and Cruelty (n. 814-823).

Concerning the Hells of those who have passed their life in Adulteries and Lasciviousness; and also concerning the Hells of the Deceitful, and of Sorceresses (n. 824-831).

Concerning the Hells of the Avaricious; and concerning the Filthy Jerusalem, and the Robbers in the Desert; and also concerning the excrementitious Hells of those who have lived in mere pleasures (n. 938-946).

Concerning other Hells that are distinct from the former (n. 947-970).

Concerning Vastations (n. 1106-1113).

1409. That the historicals are representative, but all the words significative, is evident from what has already been said and shown concerning representatives and significatives n. 665, 920, 1361); nevertheless, since representatives begin here, it is well to give briefly a further explanation of the subject. The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, looked upon all earthly and worldly, and also bodily things, which were in any wise objects of the senses, as being dead things; but as each and all things in the world present some idea of the Lord’s kingdom, consequently of things celestial and spiritual, when they saw them or apprehended them by any sense, they thought not of them, but of the celestial and spiritual things; indeed they thought not from the worldly things, but by means of them; and thus with them things that were dead became living.

[2] The things thus signified were collected from their lips by their posterity and were formed by them into doctrinals, which were the Word of the Ancient Church, after the flood. With the Ancient Church these were significative; for through them they learned internal things, and from them they thought of spiritual and celestial things. But when this knowledge began to perish, so that they did not know that such things were signified, and began to regard the terrestrial and worldly things as holy, and to worship them, with no thought of their signification, the same things were then made representative. Thus arose the Representative Church, which had its beginning in Abram and was afterwards instituted with the posterity of Jacob. From this it may be known that representatives had their rise from the significatives of the Ancient Church, and these from the celestial ideas of the Most Ancient Church.

[3] The nature of representatives may be manifest from the historicals of the Word, in which all the acts of the fathers, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, and afterwards those of Moses, and of the judges and kings of Judah and Israel, were nothing but representatives. Abram in the Word, as has been said, represents the Lord; and because he represents the Lord, he represents also the celestial man; Isaac likewise represents the Lord, and thence the spiritual man; Jacob in like manner represents the Lord, and thence the natural man corresponding to the spiritual.

[4] But with representatives the character of the person is not considered at all, but the thing which he represents; for all the kings of Judah and of Israel, of whatever character, represented the Lord’s kingly function; and all the priests, of whatever character, represented His priestly function. Thus the evil as well as the good could represent the Lord and the celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom; for, as has been said and shown above, the representatives were altogether separated from the person. Hence then it is that all the historicals of the Word are representative; and because they are representative, it follows that all the words of the Word are significative, that is, that they have a different signification in the internal sense from that which they bear in the sense of the letter.