AE 514 - He Calms the Sea

 AE 514 [22]

When Jesus had entered into a boat
His disciples followed Him.
And behold, there arose a great commotion in the sea,
so that the boat was covered by the waves;
but He was asleep.
Therefore the disciples, coming to Him awoke Him,
saying, Lord, save us; we perish.
Then He arose and rebuked the wind;
and there was a great calm.
(Matthew 8:23-26; Mark 4:36-40; Luke 8:23, 24)

This represented the state of men of the church
when they are in what is natural
and not yet in what is spiritual,
in which state the natural affections,
which are various evils springing from
the loves of self and the world,
rise up and produce various commotions of the mind.
In this state the Lord appears as it were absent;
this apparent absence is signified by His being asleep;
but when they come out of a natural
into a spiritual state
these commotions cease,
and there comes tranquillity of mind;
for the Lord calms
the tempestuous commotions of the natural person
when the spiritual mind is opened,
and through it the Lord flows into the natural.
Since the affections
that are of the love of self and of the world,
and the consequent thoughts and reasonings,
are from hell, for they are lusts of every kind
that rise up therefrom into the natural person,
these, too, are signified by
"the wind and the waves of the sea,"
and hell itself is signified by the "sea"
in the spiritual sense.