AC 5662 - "Peace be to you, fear not."

AC 5662

And he said, Peace be to you, fear not.
(Genesis 43:23)

That this means that it is well, let them not despair,
is evident from the meaning of "peace," as being to be well;
and from the meaning of "fear not,"
as being let them not despair.
For the internal sense treats of a change of state,
in that they no longer procure truths
and through them good
by their own power;
but are presented with them from the Lord.
And because they supposed
that they would thus lose their own (proprium, ego),
thus freedom, and consequently all the delight of life,
they were in despair,
as is plain from what has gone before.

. . . That "peace" denotes it is well,
is because it is the inmost,
and from there the universally reigning thing,
in each and all things in heaven;
for peace in heaven is like spring on earth,
or like the dawn,
which does not affect us by sensible changes,
but by a universal pleasantness
that flows into everything that is perceived,
and fills with this pleasantness
not only the perception itself
but also the several objects.
At the present day scarcely anyone knows
the meaning of "peace" where mentioned in the Word,
as in the benediction,
"Jehovah lift up His faces you, and give you peace"
(Numbers 6:26);
and in other places.
Almost everyone believes peace to be
security from enemies,
and also tranquillity at home and among companions.
Such peace is not meant in this passage,
but a peace which immeasurably transcends it --
the heavenly peace just now spoken of.
This peace can be bestowed on no one
unless he is led by the Lord
and is in the Lord, that is, in heaven
where the Lord is all in all;
for heavenly peace flows in
when the greediness arising from
the love of self and the love of the world are taken away.
These are what take peace away,
for they infest a person's interiors,
and at last cause him to make rest consist in unrest,
and peace in annoyances,
because his delight is in evils.
So long as a person is in these
he cannot possibly know what peace is,
indeed, he so long believes that such peace is nothing;
and if anyone says that it becomes perceptible
when the delights from the love of self and the world
are taken away, he laughs,
because he makes peace consist in the delight of evil,
which is the opposite of peace.

Because such is the nature of peace,
namely, the inmost of all happinesses and blessednesses,
and for this reason the universal that reigns in them all,
therefore the ancients used
as a common form of speech the words,
"Peace be unto you," when they meant that it be well;
and asked whether people "had peace"
when they meant "Is it well?"
See what has been said and shown above
in regard to peace, namely:
That peace in heaven is like spring and the dawn on earth
(n. 1726, 2780):
That peace in the supreme sense is the Lord,
in the representative sense His kingdom,
and that it is the Lord's Divine
affecting with good from the inmost (n. 3780, 4681):
That all unrest is from evil and falsity,
but peace from good and truth (n. 3170).