AE 781d - the Lord came

AE 781d [16]
... the Lord came into the world
not for the sake of any kingdom on earth,
but for the sake of a kingdom in heaven...

AE 780b - "and a little boy shall lead them"

AE 780b [6]
In Isaiah 6:5-6:

Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins,
and truth the girdle of His hips;
therefore the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard with the kid,
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together,
and a little boy shall lead them.

This is said of the Lord and of His kingdom,
and of the state of innocence and peace therein.

"And a little boy shall lead them"
signifies the state of innocence and love to the Lord in which they will be;
'boy" signifying innocence together with love to the Lord,
for love to the Lord makes one with innocence....

AE 778b - heaven is removed

AE 778b [4]
... heaven is removed from man when the Lord and His Divine are denied....

AE 774 - doing the law from what is good, sincere & just

AE 774 [5]
The spiritual man knows that doing the law and fulfilling it in external form does not save; but that so far as man does the law in the external form from the internal, it does save. The internal form, or the internal of the law, is to love what is good, sincere, and just; and its external is to do this. This the Lord teaches in Matthew 23:26:

Cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter,
that the outside of them may become clean also.

Man fulfills the law so far as he does it from the internal, but not so far as he does it from the external apart from the internal. The internal of man is his love and will. But to love what is good, sincere, and just, and from love to will it, is from the Lord alone. Therefore to fulfill the law is to be led by the Lord.

AE 769 - living a life of faith

AE 769
Who keep the commandments of God, (Rev. 12:17)
... signifies to live the life of faith, which is charity,...

[2]
... neither persuasive faith nor historical faith is a spiritual faith,
thus not a saving faith,
for such faith has as yet no life from the Lord in it.
That a man may receive that life
he must live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word,
because the Lord is the Word and is in the Word.
Such a life is the life of faith, which is charity....

AE 768a - with the Lord

AE 768a
... in the Word the expressions "going with the Lord,"
and "walking with Him" and "after Him," are used,
and these signify to live from the Lord...

AE 763 - spiritual light

AE 763 [2]
But let it be known that only he who is in enlightenment from the Lord,
and so in the spiritual affection of truth, thinks and reasons spiritually,
for these are in the light of truth,
and the light of truth is the light of heaven
from which the angels have intelligence and wisdom;
that light is what is called spiritual light,
and consequently those who are in that light are spiritual.

AE 759- "the wings of an eagle"

And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness into her place,
where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time,
from the face of the serpent. (Rev. 12:14)

AE 759 [5]
... what is signified by "the wings of an eagle," namely,
the understanding of truth;
and as "the woman" means the New Jerusalem,
therefore the wings being given to her signifies
that the understanding of truth was given, and will be given,
to those who will be of that church.

AE 754 - equilibrium

AE 754 [2]
... hatreds of various kinds are unceasingly ascending from the hells;
while on the other hand,
spiritual loves also of various kinds descend from the heavens,
and between the hatreds of the hells and the loves of the heavens
there is an equilibrium, in which the men in the world are held,
in order that they may be able to act from freedom according to reason.

AE 750a - eternal life

AE 750a
... life in the world, which is only for some years,
is as nothing compared with the life in heaven, which is eternal life.

AE 748 - the Holy Spirit

AE 748
The Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human
is what is called "the Holy Spirit."

AE 746c - two

AE 746c [6]
... there are two things, namely, charity and faith, that constitute the church,
as there are two things that make up the life of man, will and understanding;
so there are two parts that act as one,
as the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils,
two hands, two feet,
two lobes of the lungs, two chambers of the heart,
two hemispheres of the brain, and so on,
of which the one has reference to good from which is truth,
and the other to good.

AE 741a - doing what the Lord commands

AE 741a [2]
When a man does good from the Word, that is,
because it is commanded by the Lord in the Word,
he does it not from himself but from the Lord,
for the Lord is the Word. (John 1:1,14)

He that keeps My word,
I will come unto him
and will make my abode with him. (John 14:23)

AE 739b - the sensual vs. the celestial man

AE 739 b [10]
For the sensual man supposes that he knows everything
and that nothing escapes him;
but it is not so with the celestial man,
who is convinced that he knows nothing from himself
but from the Lord,
and that, what he does know
is so insignificant as to be scarcely anything
compared with what he does not know.

AE 735 - Michael

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon (Revelation 12:7)

AE 735 [2]
Angels, in the heavens, do not have such names as men on earth have, but they have names expressive of their functions, and in general, to every angel a name is given according to his quality; this is why "name" signifies in the Word the quality of a thing and state. The name Michael means, from its derivation in the Hebrew, who is like God; therefore Michael signifies the Lord in relation to that Divine truth that the Lord is God even as to the Human, and that man must live from Him, that is, in love to Him and from Him, and in love towards the neighbor.

AE 734c - the Lord protects us

AE 734c [8]
Because Jehovah, that is, the Lord, protects man from the hells, that is, from the evils and falsities that continually rise up out of the hells, therefore He is call "Jehovah Zebaoth," that is, Jehovah of Hosts, and "hosts" signify the truths and goods of heaven, and thus of the church in the whole complex, by which the Lord removes the hells in general, and with each one individually....

AE 732 - first with a few

AE 732 [2]
There are several reasons why this New Church that is called the Holy Jerusalem will first begin with a few, afterwards to be with more, and finally to reach fullness.

First, its doctrine, which is the doctrine of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor, can not be acknowledged and thus received except by those who are interiorly affected by truths, and those only can be interiorly affected by truths who have the ability to see them, and those only see truths who have cultivated their intellectual faculty, and have not destroyed it in themselves by the loves of self and of the world.

A second reason is that the doctrine of that church can not be acknowledged and then received but by those who have not confirmed themselves by doctrine and at the same time by life in faith alone; confirmation by doctrine alone does not prevent reception, but confirmation by life also does prevent, for such do not know what love to the Lord is, nor what charity towards the neighbor is, nor are they willing to know.

[3]
A third reason is that the New Church on the earth grows according to its increase in the world of spirits, for spirits from that world are with men, and they are from such as while they lived on earth, were in the faith of their church, and none of these receive the doctrine but those who have been in the spiritual affection of truth; these only are conjoined to heaven where that doctrine is, and they conjoin heaven to man. The number of these in the spiritual world now increases daily, therefore according to their increase does that church that is called the New Jerusalem increase on earth.

AE 730d - wandering in the wilderness for 40 years

AE 730d [31]
Every man is born natural, and lives naturally until he becomes rational; and when he has become rational he can be led by the Lord and become spiritual; and this is effected by the implanting of the knowledges of truth from the Word, and at the same time by the opening of the spiritual mind which receives the things of heaven, and by calling forth these knowledges and elevating them out of the natural man and conjoining them with the spiritual affection of truth. This opening and conjunction is possible only through temptations, because in temptations man fights interiorly against the falsities and evils that are in the natural man. In a word, man is introduced into the church and becomes a church through temptations.

[32] ( ** New International Version translation shown at asterisks below)
Thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict thee and try thee, and know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or no; and He afflicted thee and made thee to hunger, and made thee to eat manna, which thou knewest not neither did the fathers know; that He might teach thee that man doth not live by bread only, but all that goeth forth from the mouth of Jehovah doth man live; they raiment waxed not old upon thee, and thy foot swelled not, these forty years. (Deuteronomy 8:2-4)

[33]
He who knows what spiritual temptations are knows that when a man is in them he is so infested by evils and falsities as scarcely to know otherwise than that he is in hell; he knows, too, that the Lord with man fights against temptations from the interior; as also that He sustains man in the meantime with spiritual food and drink, which are the goods and truths of heaven...

**From the New International Version for Deuteronomy 8:2-4:
Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

AE 730a - the Lord flows into our will

AE 730a [2]
... the Lord never flows immediately into truths with man,
but mediately through his good;
for good is of the will,
and the will is the man himself;
from the will the understanding is produced and formed;
for the understanding is adjoined to the will
so that what the will loves the understanding sees,
and also brings forth into light;
consequently if the will is not in good, but is in evil,
then the influx of truth from the Lord into the understanding
has no effect, for it is dissipated, because it is not loved,
yea, it is perverted, and the truth is falsified.

AE 727a - old men & old women

AE 727a [9]
There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem,
and a man in whose hand is a staff because of the multitude of days.
(Zechariah 8:4)

"Old men and old women"
signify those who are intelligent from doctrine and from the affection of truth;
"the man in whose hand is a staff because of the multitude of days"
signifies the wise who trust in the Lord alone and not at all in themselves;
that these will be in the church that has the doctrine of genuine truth
is signified by "in the streets of Jerusalem,"
"Jerusalem" meaning the church in respect to doctrine,
and "streets" the truths of doctrine, here genuine truths.

AE 725b - truths

AE 725b [4]
... without truths man does not know what is good,
or what is the nature of good,
thus does not know the way to heaven...

AE 725a - doctrine & life

AE 725a [3]
... doctrine teaches how one must live and do,
and life lives the doctrine and does it.

AE 724b - regeneration

AE 724b [8]
... regeneration is the conjunction of goods with truths
and of truths with goods,
and it is the Lord who regenerates,
and the Word that teaches.

AE 721b & c - women, giving birth, the New Church, gardens, & regeneration

AE 721b [10]
... "the woman with child" those who receive truths,
and "she who is bringing forth" those who do them.
(from Jeremiah 31:8)

[11]
That those who will be of that church will acknowledge the Lord,
and will receive love to Him and thence wisdom,
is signified by
"her wilderness shall be made like Eden,
and her solitude like the garden of Jehovah",
"Eden" signifying love to the Lord,
and "the garden of Jehovah" wisdom therefrom.

[16]
Since a "mother" signifies the church,
and "sons and daughters" its truths and good,
and in the ancient churches, and afterwards the Jewish church,
all things were representative and thence significative,
it was a reproach and disgrace for women to be barren..."

AE 721c
That a woman being with child, cried out, travailing,
and pained to be delivered;
(Revelation 12:2)
which signifies that spiritual truths and goods,
which are from the Word,
can be received only with the greatest difficulty and distress,
because of the opposing evils and falsities
that then exist in the church
and occupy the minds of those who are devoted to religion.

AE 717d & 718 - the Word

AE 717d [15]
... with the evil the same as with the good,
the Word is still the Word and its truths are truths in themselves;
and when the evil pervert and falsify the truths of the Word
it yet does not change their essence.

[17]
... those who are in charity, which is the life of faith,
have the light of intelligence from the Word.

AE 718
... the Word ... from beginning to end
is the doctrine of love of love to the Lord
and of charity towards the neighbor.

AE 716 - man and the mercy of the Lord

AE 716 [2]
...at the end of the church every one wishes to live for himself, for the world,
and according to his own bent,
and few wish to live for the Lord, for heaven and eternal life;
and the principle of faith alone, which is faith separated from charity,
favors the former life,
and like the current of a river draws in and carries away
all to thus believing and living.

[3]
The Lord by His Divine truth
might instantly cast out the falsities of evil that are with man,
but this would be to cast the man instantly into hell;
for these falsities must first be removed,
and so far as they are removed,
so far there is a place of implanting truths from good,
and man is reformed.

AE 714b - "the dragon"

AE 714b [4]
In general, it (the dragon) signifies those who are more or less natural, and yet are in a knowledge of spiritual things from the Word. But in particular, it signifies those who have confirmed themselves, by doctrine and life, in a faith separated from charity. These constitute the head of the dragon. But those who from self-intelligence hatch out for themselves dogmas from the Word constitute its body; while those who study the Word without doctrine constitute its external parts. All these also falsify and adulterate the Word, since they are in the love of self, and thence in the pride of self-intelligence, from which they become merely natural, yea, even sensual, and the sensual man is unable to see the genuine truths of the Word...

[5]
For the Word itself is spiritual, because it is in itself Divine, and is therefore in heaven. But since the mere knowledge of spiritual things from the Word does not make man spiritual, but a life according to those that that are in the Word; therefore all those who are in knowledge from the Word and are not in a life according to that knowledge are natural and even sensual.

AE 714a - knowing and living

AE 714a [2]
... one who knows the things taught in the Word or in doctrine or by a preacher, and does not live according to them, however learned and erudite he may appear, is nevertheless not spiritual but natural, and even sensual, for knowledge and the ability to reason do not make man spiritual, but life itself.

... to love truths and from love to will them and from that will to do them is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and is in its nature celestial and Divine....

AE 710b - going astray

AE 710b [17]
... no one is estranged from God and goes astray from birth...

AE 707 - spheres

AE 707
... for the life of the love of every one, both of man and of spirit and angel,
forms a sphere about them from which their quality is perceived,
even afar off....

AE 706b - the Lord Himself

AE 706b [10]
... the Lord Himself, from whom is every thing of doctrine and every thing of spiritual nourishment....

AE 706a - dreams

AE 706a [3]
... when a man dreams, his natural understanding is laid asleep and his spiritual sight is opened, which draws its all from the affection.