AC 1450, 1451, 1458 - Abram's Travels, the Lord's Childhood, and Celestial Things

AC 1450

And he removed from there
into the mountain on the east of Bethel.
(Genesis 12:8)

That this signifies the Lord's fourth state when a child,
is evident from what precedes and from what follows,
and also from the order itself.
The order was that the Lord should first of all
be imbued from infancy with the celestial things of love.
The celestial things of love are love to Jehovah
and love to the neighbor, and innocence itself in these.
From these, as from the very fountains of life,
flow all other things both in general and particular,
for all other things are merely derivations.
These celestial things are insinuated into a person
chiefly in his state of infancy up to childhood,
and in fact without knowledges;
for they flow in from the Lord, and affect him,
before the person knows
what love is and what affection is;
as may be seen from the state of infants,
and afterwards from the state of early childhood.
These things in a person are the remains
which have been spoken of several times;
and which are insinuated by the Lord
and stored up for use in afterlife.
As the Lord was born as are other people,
He was also introduced
according to order
into celestial things,
and in fact by degrees from infancy to childhood,
and afterwards into knowledges;
and how the case was with Him in regard to these
is described in this verse,
and is represented in what follows
by Abraham's sojourn in Egypt.

AC 1451

Celestial things are insinuated into a person
both without knowledges, and with knowledges;
celestial things without knowledges
from infancy up to childhood . . .
but celestial things with knowledges
from childhood onward to adult age.
And as the Lord was to advance
into the knowledges of celestial things,
which are meant by "Bethel,"
it is here said that Abram passed over there
to a mountain on the east of Bethel.

AC 1458 [5]

That Abram's journeying,
going and journeying toward the south,
means . . . the Lord's progression into goods and truths,
and thus into a state of light as to the interiors,
is so to be understood:
knowledges are the things that open the way
for seeing celestial and spiritual things;
by means of knowledges the way is opened
for the internal person to advance toward the external,
in which latter are the receiving vessels,
which are as many as are
the knowledges of good and truth;
into these knowledges,
as into their vessels,
do celestial things inflow.