AE 652 - "The Streets of a City"

AE 652 [30-32]

Because "the streets of a city" means the truths of doctrine,
according to which one should live,
it was customary to teach and to pray in the streets.
Thus in the second book of Samuel:

Tell it not in Gath,
publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice.
(II Samuel. 1:20)

When you give alms
sound not a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the open places
that they may have glory of men.
And when you pray you shall not be as the hypocrites,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets
where they may be seen of men.
(Matthew 6:2, 5)
or
Then shall you begin to say,
We did eat before You and drink,
and You did teach in our streets;
but He shall say,
I tell you I know you not where you are from.
(Luke 13:26, 27)

Furthermore, from the signification of "street,"
as meaning the truth of doctrine,
it is also evident why the Lord said in the parable that:

The master of the house commanded his servants
to go out quickly into the streets and open places of the city
and bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind.
(Luke 14:21)

"The poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind,"
do not mean such in a natural sense,
but such in a spiritual sense,
that is, such as had not the Word,
and were therefore in ignorance of truth
and in lack of good,
but still desired truths
by means of which they might obtain good;
such were the Gentiles
with whom the church of the Lord
was afterwards established.