AC 10293 - the spices

AC 10293
. . . the spices are mentioned in order,
according to the truths with a person,
from most external to inmost;
so it is that by "stacte"
is signified the affection of sensuous truth,
which is truth most external;
by "onycha," the affection of natural truth,
which is interior truth in the natural person;
by "galbanum," an affection of truth still more interior,
which is interior truth in the spiritual or internal person;
and by "frankincense," inmost truth in the internal person,
which is spiritual good -
in like manner as was signified
by the spices from which the oil of anointing was prepared,
which were best myrrh, aromatic cinnamon,
aromatic calamus, and cassia . . ..
But the difference is that those truths
which are signified by the spices of the oil of anointing,
belong to the celestial class,
while these truths
which are signified by the spices of the incense,
belong to the spiritual class.
 

Psalm 97:1,9-12

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.

For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.

Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for He guards the lives of His faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is shed upon the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, you  who are righteous,
and praise His holy name.
(Psalm 97:1,9-12)

AC 10284 - the end in view

AC 10284 [2]
Everything that is from the Lord is good and true.
but anything good or true produced by a person
in imitation of it
is neither good nor true.
. . . With person the end in view is himself,
since it constitutes his will and his love;
for what a person loves and wills
he has as his end in view.
All the love in a person that originates in himself
is self-love and a selfish love of the world;
but the love in a person that originates in the Lord
is love towards the neighbor and love to God.
The difference between the two kinds of love
is as great as that between hell and heaven.
Furthermore self-love and a selfish love of the world
reign in hell and constitute hell,
whereas love towards the neighbor and love to the Lord
reign in heaven and constitute heaven.
 

Psalm 96:1-6

Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise His name;
proclaim His salvation day after day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him;
strength and the glory are in His sanctuary.
(Psalm 96:1-6)

AC 10279 - the Word opens heaven; AC 10283 - "spirit", "flesh"

AC 10276 [9]
. . .  unless the Lord had come into the world
and opened the interior things of the Word,
the communication with the heavens
by means of the Word
would have been broken;
and then the human race on this earth would have perished,
for a person can think no truth and do no good
except from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord;
and the Word is that which opens heaven.


AC 10283 [13]
. . . In the Word, "spirit" is opposed to "flesh,"
because by "spirit" is signified life from the Lord,
and by "flesh" life from man . . ..

Psalm 95:6-7

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for He is our God
and we are the people of His pasture,
the flock under His care.
(Psalm 95:6-7)

AC 10266 - He who believes

AC 10266
He who believes
that a person can be endowed with the good of love,
without the truths of faith,
and without a live in accordance with these,
is very much mistaken.

Psalm 94:17-19

Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
Your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
Your consolation brought joy to my soul.
(Psalm 94:17-19)

AC 10253, 10258 - when the Lord was in the world

AC 10253 [4]
The Lord . . . spoke from the Divine,
thus by means of significatives
according to correspondences . . ..

AC 10258 [3-4]
     God, thy God, has anointed you,
all thy garments with the oil of gladness,
with myrrh, aloes, and kesia.
(Psalm 45:8, 9)

The subject treated of in this whole Psalm is the Lord,
and indeed the glorification of His Human . . ..
That garments are not meant, is plain,
nor myrrh, aloes, and kesia with which they were anointed;
but Divine truths from Divine good,
which the Lord put on in respect to His Human.
For anointing was nothing else than a representative
of the Divine good in the Lord's Divine Human;
so by "myrrh, aloes, and kesia"
are signified Divine truths in their order
proceeding from the Divine good which was in Him.
So by "garments" is signified His Divine Human;
for whether you say
"the Divine Human of the Lord," or "the Divine truth,"
it is the same,
because when the Lord was in the world
He was the Divine truth itself;
and when He went out of the world,
He made Himself the Divine good,
from which is the Divine truth.
. . . ("garments" signify the truths which clothe good. . .)

Psalm 93:3-4

The seas have lifted up, O Lord,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea -
the Lord on high is mighty.
(Psalm 93:3-4)

AC 10252 - celestial good

AC 10252 [2-3]
In order that celestial good, which is inmost good,
may be born with a person,
which is effected by the Lord through regeneration,
truths must be acquired from the Word,
or from the doctrine of the church which is from the Word.
These truths obtain their first seat
in the memory of the natural or external person;
from this they are called forth by the Lord
into the internal person,
which is done when the person lives according to them;
and the more the person is affected with them, or loves them,
the higher, or the more interiorly,
they are raised by the Lord,
and there become celestial good.

Celestial good
is the good of the love of doing truths from the Word
for the sake of good,
thus for the Lord's sake;
for the Lord is the source of good, thus is good;
and this is the generation of this good.

Psalm 92:1-8

It is good to praise the Lord
and make music in Your name, O Most High,
to proclaim Your love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.

For you make me glad by Your deeds, O Lord;
I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
How great are Your works, O Lord,
how profound Your thoughts!
The senseless man does not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be forever destroyed.

But You, O Lord, are exalted forever.
(Psalm 92:1-8)

AC 10238 - water; AC 10239 - washing, baptism

AC 10238
. . . "waters" signify the truths of faith . . .

 AC 10239
. . . the signification "washing," as being purification . . .

. . . "baptism," signifies regeneration . . .

[2] .  . .  regeneration differs from purification
in that regeneration precedes, and purification follows;
for no one can be purified from evils and falsities
except the person who is being regenerated,
and after he has been regenerated;
for he who has not been regenerated
is indeed withdrawn from evils insofar as he allows;
but he is not purified from them, for he is always impure.
It is otherwise with the regenerate person,
who is being purified from day to day,

Psalm 91:1-2

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord,
"He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
(Psalm 91:1-2)

AC 10237 - washing

AC 10237
. . . by "washing" is signified purification;
by "waters" are signified the truths of faith;
and by the "laver" containing the water is signified the natural,
because all spiritual purification is effected in the natural.
A person has an external and an internal;
the external is called the natural,
and also the natural person;
and the internal is called the spiritual,
and also the spiritual person,
for the reason that the internal of a person
is in the spiritual world where spirits and angels are,
and his external is in the natural world where men are.
Both the internal and the external person are purified,
the internal in heaven,
and the external while the person lives in the world,
thus in the natural which is in the world.

[2] The reason why purification goes on in the natural . . .,
is that the truths of faith come to clear perception in the natural;
for there they are among the memory-knowledges,
or things of the memory,
which are clearly perceived when they are thought of.
But this is not the case
with the things that are thought of in the internal person;
these do not come to clear perception
while the person is in the world,
because the ideas in the internal person are spiritual.
Consequently, it is that purification is effected in the natural.
That it is effected by means of the truths of faith
can be seen from the fact
that those who are being purified
must not only know what evil and falsity are, 
but must also acknowledge them,
and then hold them in aversion and shun them.
When this is done,
then for the first time is the person purified from them . . ..

Psalm 90:1-2;17

Lord, You have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or You brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting
You are God.

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish the work of our hands for us -
yes, establish the work of our hands.
(Psalm 90:1-2.17)

AC 10227 - being wise

AC 10227 [2-3]
All have the capacity to understand and to be wise;
but the reason one person is wiser than another
is that they do not in like manner ascribe to the Lord
all things of intelligence and wisdom,
which are all things of truth and good.
They who ascribe all to the Lord are wiser than the rest,
because all things of truth and good,
which constitute wisdom,
flow in from heaven, that is, from the Lord there.
The ascription of all things to the Lord
opens the interiors of a person toward heaven,
for thus it is acknowledged
that nothing of truth and good is from himself;
and in proportion as this is acknowledged,
the love of self departs,
and with the love of self
the thick darkness from falsities and evils.
In the same proportion also
the person comes into innocence,
and into love and faith to the Lord,
from which comes conjunction with the Divine . . .
and enlightenment.

By the capacity to be wise
is not meant the capacity to reason
about truths and goods from memory-knowledges,
nor the capacity to confirm whatever one pleases;
but the capacity to discern what is true and good,
to choose what is suitable,
and to apply it to the uses of life.
They who ascribe all things to the Lord
do thus discern, choose, and apply;
while those who do not ascribe to the Lord,
but to themselves,
know merely how to reason about truths and goods;
nor do they see anything except what is from others;
and this not from reason,
but from the activity of the memory.
As they cannot look into truths themselves,
they stand outside, and confirm whatever they receive,
whether it be true or false.
They who can do this
in a learned way from memory-knowledges
are believed by the world to be wiser than others;
but the more they attribute all things to themselves,
thus the more they love what they think from themselves,
the more insane they are;
for they confirm falsities rather than truths,
and evils rather than goods,
and this because they have light from no other source
than the fallacies and appearances of the world,
and consequently from their own light,
which is called natural light,
separated from the light of heaven;
and which light when thus separated
is mere thick darkness
in respect to the truths and goods of heaven.

Mark 16:14

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating;
He rebuked them for their lack of faith
and their stubborn refusal to believe
those who had seen Him after He had risen.
(Mark 16:14)

AC 10214, 10218, 10219 - numbering

AC 10214
. . . numbering involves survey,
and that which is surveyed by the Lord
is also set in order and disposed.

AC 10218 [2]
It was forbidden to number the sons of Israel
because by "numbering"
was signified to set in order and dispose,
and by the "sons of Israel"
and by the "tribes" into which they were divided,
were signified all the truths and goods
of faith and love in the complex;
and as the setting in order and the disposing of these
was of the Lord alone and not of man,
therefore to number them was a trespass,
such as is made by those who claim for themselves
the truths which are of faith and the goods which are of love,
and the setting in order and disposing of these . . ..
For they are such as justify themselves
by claiming for themselves as merit
all things of faith and love,
and consequently believe themselves
to have of themselves
merited heaven by virtue of their faith and works.
This evil was involved in the numbering of the people by David . . ..

AC 10219 [3]
But so long as a person believes
that he does all things of himself,
both goods and evils,
so long goods do not affect him,
and evils adhere to him;
but the moment that he acknowledges and believes
that goods flow in from the Lord, and not from himself,
and that evils are from hell,
then goods affect him and evils do not adhere to him;
and, moreover, insofar as goods affect him,
so far evils are removed,
thus he is purified and liberated from them.
But so long as the state of a person is such
that he cannot perceive and be sensible of
the influx of goods from the Lord,
so long he does goods as from himself,
and yet ought to acknowledge and believe
that they are from the Lord.
When this is the case,
he also is liberated from evils;
but in order that he may be liberated from evils
this acknowledgment must be
the confession of the heart itself,
and not of the lips only.

Luke 24:13-16, 30-32

Now that same day
two of them were going to a village called Emmaus,
about sixty stadia (7 miles, 11 kilometers) from Jerusalem.
They were talking with each other
about everything that had happened.
As they talked and discussed these things with each other,
Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;
but they were kept from recognizing Him.

When He was at the table with them,
He took bread, gave thanks,
broke and began to give it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him,
and He disappeared from their sight.
They asked each other,
"Were not our hearts burning within us
while He talked with us on the road
and opened the Scriptures to us?"
(Luke 24:13-16, 30-32)