DP 326 [9, 11-13] - the Ark when the Philistines took it to the temple of Dagon in Ashton

DP326 [9]
Acknowledging God
and not doing evil because it is contrary to God
are the two ingredients which make a religion a religion.
If one of these is lacking, it cannot be called a religion,
inasmuch as to acknowledge God and do evil is a contradiction,
and so is it to do good and not acknowledge God.
For one is impossible without the other.

The Lord has provided that some religion exist almost everywhere,
and that each have in it these two elements.
Moreover, the Lord has also provided
that there be a place in heaven for everyone who acknowledges God
and does not do evil because it is contrary to God.
For heaven in its totality resembles a single person,
whose life or soul is the Lord.
That heavenly person
has in it all the constituents found in a natural person,
with the kind of difference
that exists between heavenly things and natural ones.

[11] That these two elements are the primary ones in any religion
can be seen from the fact
that it is these two that the Decalogue teaches,
and the Decalogue was the beginning of the Word,
proclaimed by Jehovah from Mount Sinai in His own voice
(Exodus 20:1, 19. Deuteronomy 5:4, 22).
and written on two tablets of stone with the finger of God.
(Exodus 31:18. Deuteronomy 9:10).
Moreover, having been placed in the Ark,
it was then called Jehovah (Numbers 10:35, 36),
and it sanctified the holy of holies in the Tabernacle,
and the inner sanctuary in the Temple in Jerusalem;
and everything there was sacred, owing to it alone.

We know from the Word
that the Ark containing the two tablets on which the Decalogue was written
was captured by the Philistines
and placed in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod;
that Dagon fell to the ground before it,
and later his head was found lying on the threshold of the temple
with the palms of his hands torn from his body;
that the people of Ashdod and Ekron
were stricken with hemorrhoids because of the Ark,
affecting many thousands,
and that their land was ravaged by mice;
moreover, that on the advice of the leading men of their nation,
the Philistines made five hemorrhoids and five mice of gold,
and a new cart, on which they placed the Ark,
with the hemorrhoids and mice of gold beside it,
and sent it back by means of two cows,
which lowed along the way before the cart,
to the children of Israel, who sacrificed the cows and the cart
(1 Samuel 5, 6).

[12] We shall now say what all these things meant symbolically.

The Philistines
symbolized people caught up in faith separated from charity.

Dagon
represented that religious persuasion.

The hemorrhoids with which they were stricken
symbolized natural loves,
which, when separated from spiritual love,
are unclean.
And the mice
symbolized the devastation of the church by falsifications of truth.

The new cart on which they sent back the Ark
symbolized a new doctrine, though a natural one,
for a conveyance in the Word symbolizes doctrine founded on spiritual truths.

The cows
symbolized good natural affections.

The hemorrhoids of gold
symbolized natural loves purified and made good.

The mice of gold
symbolized the devastation of the church removed by good,
for gold in the Word symbolizes good.

The lowing of the cows along the way
symbolized the difficult conversion of lusts for evil in the natural self
into good affections.

The offering of the cows together with the cart as a burnt offering
symbolized the Lord's being thus propitiated.
[propitiate - make peace with]

[13] These are the things spiritually meant by those narrative details.
Connect them into a single sense and form an application.

That the Philistines
represented people caught up in faith separated from charity . . ..
And that the Ark was the holiest object of the church
because of the Decalogue contained in it . . ..