664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

4884. 'And put on the clothes of her widowhood' means intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'a widow' as one with whom truth exists without good but who nevertheless desires to be led by good, dealt with above in 4844; and from the meaning of 'clothes' as truths, dealt with in 297, 2576, 4545, 4763. The reason why these taken together mean intelligence is that nothing else than truths constitute intelligence, for those in possession of truths rooted in good possess intelligence. Indeed truths rooted in good enable the human understanding to dwell in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven is intelligence because Divine Truth rooted in Divine Good constitutes it. Also, a further reason why 'putting on the clothes of widowhood' here means intelligence is that 'a widow' in the genuine sense means one with whom truth exists and who desires to be led by good to truth that constitutes intelligence, as also shown above in 4844, and so to intelligence itself.

[2] To enable the implications of all this to be seen a brief explanation is necessary. When a person knows the truth it is not truth constituting intelligence until he is led by good; but when he is led by good it starts to become the truth of intelligence. For truth does not receive its life from itself but from good; and truth receives its life from good when the person lives in conformity with that truth. When he does this, truth injects itself into the intentions of his will, and from these into his actions, and so into the entire person. Truth that is merely known or grasped intellectually by a person remains excluded from his will, and so from his life since the intentions of a person's will constitute his life. But once he is intent on truth it stands at the gateway into his life; and when he is intent on it and therefore practices it, that truth is present within the entire person. Then, when his practice of that truth is frequent its reappearance is attributable not merely to habit but also to an affection for it and so to a free desire to practise it. Let anyone at all consider whether anything can be taken in by a person apart from that which he is intent on putting into practice. That which he merely thinks about but does not actually do, more so that which he thinks about but does not wish to do, is nothing else than something which remains excluded from that person, and is also driven away like a straw by the smallest puff of wind, and is actually blown away in that manner in the next life. From this one can know what faith without works is. These considerations now show what truth constituting intelligence is, namely truth which is rooted in good. Truth is the characteristic feature of the understanding and good that of the will; or what amounts to the same, truth is the substance of doctrine and good that of life.