AC 1496 - Childhood and Intellectual Truth

AC 1496

Regarded in itself,
the truth learned from childhood is nothing but a vessel
adapted to the reception of what is celestial.
Truth has no life from itself,
but only from the celestial that flows in.
The celestial is love and charity;
all truth is there,
and because all truth is there
it is nothing but a kind of vessel;
and so are truths themselves
plainly presented in the other life;
truths there are never regarded from truths,
but from the life which is in them;
that is, from the celestial things
which are of love and charity in the truths;
from these it is that truths become celestial,
and are called celestial truths.
We can now see what intellectual truth is,
as also that with the Lord
intellectual truth opened the way to celestial things.

Truth in the memory is one thing;
rational truth is another;
and intellectual truth is another;
they succeed one another.
Truth in the memory is a matter of memory-knowledge;
rational truth is this truth confirmed by reason;
intellectual truth is conjoined
with an internal perception that it is so.
This intellectual truth existed with the Lord
in His childhood,
and with Him opened the way to celestial things.

AC 1487, 1489 - The Use of Childhood Memory-knowledges

AC 1487

As regards memory-knowledges the case is this.
In childhood they are acquired
for no other end than that of knowing;
with the Lord,
they were acquired from
the delights and affection of truth.
The memory-knowledges acquired in childhood
are very numerous,
but are disposed by the Lord into order
so as to serve for use;
first, to give the ability to think;
then that they may be of use by means of thought;
and lastly that this may take effect,
that is to say that the very life may consist in use,
and be a life of uses.
These are the things performed by
the memory-knowledges that are acquired in childhood;
and without them the external person
can never be conjoined with the internal,
and at the same time become use.
When a person becomes use, that is,
when he thinks all things from the end of use,
and does all things for the end of use --
if not by clear reflection,
still by tacit reflection
from a nature acquired by so doing --
then the memory-knowledges
which have served the first use --
that the person may become rational --
being no longer of service,
are destroyed; and so on.
These are the things here meant by the words
"Jehovah smote Pharaoh with great plagues."

AC 1489

. . . unless the knowledges which in childhood
have performed the use of making the person rational,
are destroyed, so that they are as nothing,
truth can never be conjoined with what is celestial.
These first memory-knowledges
are for the most part earthly, corporeal, and worldly.
However Divine may be the precepts that a child learns,
he still has no other idea concerning them
than that which is obtainable from such knowledges;
and therefore,
so long as those lowest knowledges cling to him,
from which are his ideas,
his mind cannot be elevated.
With the Lord it was the same,
because He was born as are other men,
and was to be instructed as are others,
but according to Divine order,
which is such as has been stated.
In these things which are said
concerning Abram in Egypt,
there is described the Divine order --
how in the Lord
the external man was conjoined with the internal,
so that the external also might become Divine.

AC 1475-1475 - "Sister", "Wife" and Orderly Progression

 AC 1474-1475

Say, I pray, you are my sister,
that it may be well with me for your sake,
and that my soul may live because of you.
(Genesis 12:13)

"Say, I pray, you are my sister,"
means intellectual truth which is a "sister;"
"that it may be well with me for your sake,"
means that so the celestial
could have no violence done to it;
"and that my soul may live because of you,"
means that so the celestial could be saved.

"Say, I pray, you are my sister."
That this means intellectual truth, which is a "sister,"
is evident from the meaning of a "sister,"
as being intellectual truth when celestial truth is a "wife,"
concerning which hereafter.
These things stand thus:
it is the nature of memory-knowledge
to desire nothing more
than to introduce itself into celestial things
and explore them;
but this is contrary to order,
for it thus does violence to celestial things.

Order itself is
that the celestial by means of the spiritual
introduces itself into the rational,
and thus into the memory-knowledge],
and adapts this to itself;
and unless this order is observed,
there cannot possibly be any wisdom.
In the passage before us
are also contained the arcana
as to how the Lord was instructed by His Father
according to all order;
and thus how His external man
was conjoined with His internal,
that is, how His external man was made Divine,
like the internal;
thus how He became Jehovah as to each essence;
which was done by means of knowledges,
which are the means.
Without knowledges as means,
the external person cannot even become a person.

AC 1472 - Memory-knowledges and the Celestial Use

AC 1472

Anyone can see, if he pays attention,
that in itself the memory-knowledge of knowledges
is nothing but a means whereby
a person may become rational,
and then spiritual, and at last celestial;
and that by means of the knowledges
his external person may be adjoined to his internal;
and when this is done,
he is in the use itself.

The internal person regards nothing but the use.
For the sake of this end also,
the Lord insinuates the delight that childhood
and youth perceives in memory-knowledges.
But when a person begins to make his delight consist
in memory-knowledge alone,
it is a bodily greed which carries him away,
and in proportion as he is thus carried away
(that is,
makes his delight consist in mere memory-knowledge),
in the same proportion
he removes himself from what is celestial,
and in the same proportion
do the memory-knowledges close themselves
toward the Lord,
and become material.
But in proportion as
the memory-knowledges are learned
with the end of use,
-- as for the sake of human society,
for the sake of the Lord's church on earth,
for the sake of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens,
and still more for the Lord's own sake,
--the more are they opened toward Him.
On this account also the angels,
who are in the memory-knowledge of all knowledges,
and indeed to such a degree
that scarcely one part in ten thousand
can be presented to the full understanding of a person,
yet esteem such knowledge
as nothing in comparison with use.

From what has been said
it may be seen what is signified by the words,
"When the Egyptians shall see you, they will say,
This is his wife; and they will kill me,
and will make thee to live."
These things were said
because the Lord when a child knew this
and thought in this way, namely,
that if He should be carried away by a mere desire
for the memory-knowledge of knowledges,
this memory-knowledge is of such a character
that it would care no more for celestial things,
but only for the knowledges
which the desire for memory-knowledge
would carry away.

AC 1468 - "Wife" and "Husband"; AC 1470 - Two Kinds of Happiness

AC 1468

A "wife," in the internal sense of the Word,
means nothing else than truth conjoined with good;
for the conjunction of truth with good
is circumstanced precisely as is a marriage.
In the Word, when a "husband" is mentioned,
the husband means good,
and the wife means truth;
but when he is not called the husband, but the "man,"
then he means truth,
and the wife means good:
this is the constant usage in the Word . . ..

AC 1470

There are two kinds of happiness in the internal person,
to which correspond
two kinds of delight in the external person;
one is of good, the other is of truth;
celestial happiness and delight are of good,
spiritual happiness and delight are of truth.
It is also known that truth itself
is attended with happiness and delight,
but these are essentially such
only when the truth is from what is celestial,
for then the truth itself also becomes celestial,
and is called celestial truth.
To speak comparatively,
truth is then like the light of the sun in the springtime,
which has heat in its bosom,
from which all things on the earth are made to vegetate,
and are as it were animated.
This celestial truth is the beautiful itself,
or beauty itself.
This is the truth which is here called
"a woman beautiful to look upon."

~ Making a Vow or an Oath to the Lord ~

Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel:
"This is what the Lord commands:
When a man makes a vow to the Lord
or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge,
he must not break his word
but must do everything he said."

(Numbers 30:1-2)

 

AC 1460 - Famine

AC  1460 [1,4]

There was a famine in the land.
(Genesis 12:10

That this means a scarcity of knowledges
as yet with the Lord when a child,
is evident from what has been already said.
During childhood the knowledges in a person
never come from that which is interior,
but from the objects of the senses,
especially from the hearing.
For, as before said,
there are in the external person receiving vessels,
called the things of the memory,
and these are formed by means of knowledges --
as everybody may know --
the internal person flowing in and helping;
consequently knowledges are learned
and are implanted in the memory
in accordance with the influx of the internal person.
Thus also was it with the Lord when He was a child --
for He was born as are other people
and was instructed as are other people --
but with Him the interiors were celestial,
which adapted the vessels
for the reception of the knowledges,
and in such a way
that the knowledges should afterwards become
vessels to receive the Divine.
The interiors with Him were Divine,
from Jehovah His Father;
the exteriors were human,
from Mary His mother.
So it may be seen that with the Lord,
equally as with other people,
there was in His external person,
during His childhood, a scarcity of knowledges.

[4] In John:

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore.
(Rev. 7:16)

concerning the Lord's kingdom,
where there is an abundance
of all celestial knowledges and goods,
which is "not to hunger;"
and of spiritual knowledges and truths,
which is "not to thirst."

In like manner spoke the Lord in John:

I am the Bread of life
he that comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.
(John 6:35).

And in Luke:

Blessed are you that hunger now,
for you shall be filled.
(Luke 6:21)

And again:

He has filled the hungry with good things.
(Luke 1:53)

 

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.

AC 1442 - The Oak Grove of Moreh

AC 1443

As regards "the oak-grove Moreh"
being the first perception,
the case is this.
There are with a person
things intellectual, things rational, and things of memory;
his inmost things are intellectual,
his interior things are rational,
and his exterior things are those of the memory;
all these are called his spiritual things,
which are in the order here given.
The intellectual things of the celestial person
are compared to a garden of trees of every kind;
his rational things,
to a forest of cedars and similar trees,
such as there were in Lebanon;
but his memory-knowledges
are compared to oak-groves,
and this from their intertwined branches
such as are those of the oak.
By trees themselves are meant perceptions;
as by the trees of the garden of Eden eastward,
inmost perceptions, or those of intellectual things
by the trees of the forest of Lebanon,
interior perceptions, or those of rational things;
but by the trees of an oak-grove,
exterior perceptions,
or those of memory-knowledges,
which belong to the external person.
So it is that "the oak-grove Moreh"
means the Lord's first perception;
for He was as yet a child,
and His spiritual things were not more interior than this.
Besides, the oak-grove Moreh
was where the sons of Israel also first came
when they passed over the Jordan
and saw the land of Canaan,
concerning which in Moses:

You shall put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim,
and the curse upon Mount Ebal.
Are they not beyond Jordan,
behind the way of the going down of the sun,
in the land of the Canaanite that dwells in the plain
over against Gilgal, beside the oak-groves of Moreh.
(Deuteronomy 11:29-30);

by which also is meant the first of perception,
for the entrance of the sons of Israel represents
the entrance of the faithful into the Lord's kingdom.

AC 1425-1426, 1428 - Abram and Lot

 AC 1425-1426

And Abram went as Jehovah spoke unto him;
and Lot went with him.
(Genesis 12:4)

And Abram was a son of five years and seventy years
when he went forth out of Haran.
By "Abram," as already said,
is represented the Lord as to His Human Essence.
"And Abram went as Jehovah spoke unto him"
means His progression toward Divine things;
"and Lot went with him,"
means what is sensuous;
by "Lot" is represented the Lord
as to His sensuous and corporeal person;
"and Abram was a son of five years and seventy years,"
means that as yet there was not very much of the Divine;
"when he went forth out of Haran,"
means an obscure state of the Lord.

That by "Abram" is represented
the Lord as to His Human Essence,
is evident from everything that is said of Abram.
Afterwards he represents the Lord
both as to the Human and also the Divine Essence,
and he is then called "Abraham."
The things that have so far been said, from the first verse,
represent and mean the Lord's first mental awareness
that He was to put on celestial and thus Divine things.
Here there commence the progressions
of His Human Essence to His Divine Essence.

AC 1428

It is evident that the Lord was born as are other people,
but of a virgin mother,
and that He possessed what is sensuous and corporeal
as do other people;
but He differed from other people in the fact
that His sensuous and corporeal was afterwards
united to celestial things,
and was made Divine.
The Lord's sensuous and corporeal itself,
or what is the same,
His sensuous and corporeal person,
as it was in His state of childhood --
not as it became when united
by means of celestial things to the Divine --
is represented by Lot.

AC 1421, 1422 - Blessing

AC 1421

And I will bless them that bless you,
and will curse him that curses you;
and in you shall all the families of the ground be blessed.
(Genesis 12:3)

"I will bless them that bless you,"
means all happiness to those
who acknowledge the Lord from the heart;
"and will curse him that curses you,"
means unhappiness to those
who do not acknowledge Him;
"and in you shall all the families of the ground be blessed,"
means that all things true and good are from the Lord.

AC 1422 [2]

. . . "to bless the Lord" is to sing to Him,
to proclaim the good tidings of His salvation,
to preach His wisdom and power,
and thus to confess and acknowledge the Lord
from the heart.
Those who do this cannot but be blessed by the Lord,
that is, be gifted with those things
which belong to blessing, namely,
with celestial, spiritual,
natural, worldly, and corporeal good;
these, when they follow each other in this order,
are the goods in which there is happiness.

AC 1419 - The Lord's Love; AC - The Lord "A Blessing"

AC 1419

The Lord, being love itself,
or the essence and life
of the love of all in the heavens,
wills to give to the human race all things that are His;
which is meant by His saying
that the Son of man came
to give His life a ransom for many.
From this it is evident
that in the internal sense "name" and "glory"
are altogether different
from what they are in the external sense.
In heaven therefore all are rejected
who desire to become great and the greatest;
because this is contrary to
the essence and life of heavenly love,
which are from the Lord.
Hence it is also
that nothing is more contrary to heavenly love
than the love of self.

AC 1420

. . . "a blessing" means the Lord,
and that when He is called "a blessing,"
it means that from Him
are all celestial and spiritual things,
which alone are goods;
and because they alone are goods,
they alone are truths;
and therefore in proportion as there are
celestial and spiritual goods
in natural, worldly, and corporeal ones,
in the same proportion these are goods,
and are "blessed."

AC 1408 - The Body and the Soul

AC 1408

The Word of the Lord is like a body
that contains within it a living soul;
the things belonging to the soul
do not appear
while the mind is so fixed in corporeal things
that it scarcely believes that there is a soul,
still less that it will live after death;
but as soon as the mind withdraws from corporeal things,
those which are of the soul and life become clear.
And this also is the reason,
not only why corporeal things must die
before a person can be born anew, or be regenerated,
but also why the body itself must die
so that he may come into heaven
and see heavenly things.

AC 1404-1405 - Genesis 12: The Histories Begin

AC  1404-1405

In these things now before us,
which are true histories,
all the statements and words
both in general and in particular
have in the internal sense
an entirely different meaning
from that which they bear in the sense of the letter;
but the histories themselves are representative.
Abram, who is first treated of,
represents in general the Lord,
and specifically the celestial man;
Isaac, who is afterwards treated of,
in like manner represents in general the Lord,
and specifically the spiritual man;
Jacob also in general represents the Lord,
and specifically the natural man.
Thus they represent the things
which are of the Lord, of His kingdom,
and of the church.

But the internal sense,
as has already been clearly shown,
is of such a nature
that all things in general and in particular
are to be understood abstractly from the letter,
just as if the letter did not exist;
for in the internal sense is the Word's soul and life,
which does not become clear
unless the sense of the letter as it were vanishes.
Thus, from the Lord,
do the angels perceive the Word
when it is being read by a person.

AC 1383 - Two Kinds of Perception

AC 1383

Among the wonderful things in the other life
are perceptions, of which there are two kinds.
One kind, which is angelic perception,
consists in perceiving what is true and good,
and what is from the Lord,
and what from the persons themselves;
and also in perceiving the source and quality
of their thoughts, words, and actions,
when these are from themselves.
The other kind is common to all,
to angels in the highest perfection,
and to spirits according to their respective qualities,
and consists in knowing
the quality of another on his first approach.

AC 1361 - Representatives Explained

 AC 1361

The things that were represented in the Jewish Church,
and in the Word,
are the Lord and His kingdom,
consequently the celestial things of love,
and the spiritual things of faith:
these are what were represented,
besides many things that pertain to these,
such as all things that belong to the church.
The representing objects are either persons or things
that are in the world or upon the earth;
in a word, all things that are objects of the senses,
insomuch that there is scarcely any object
that cannot be a representative.
But it is a general law of representation
that there is no reflection
upon the person or upon the thing which represents,
but only upon that thing itself which is represented.

For example, every king, whoever he was,
in Judah and Israel, and even in Egypt and elsewhere,
could represent the Lord.
Their royalty itself is what is representative.
So that the worst of all kings could represent,
such as the Pharaoh
who set Joseph over the land of Egypt,
Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon (Dan. 2:37-38),
Saul, and the other kings of Judah and of Israel,
of whatever character they were.
The anointing itself --
from which they were called Jehovah's anointed --
involved this.
In like manner all priests, how many soever they were,
represented the Lord;
the priestly function itself being what is representative;
and so in like manner the priests
who were evil and impure;
because in representatives
there is no reflection upon the person,
in regard to what his quality is.
And not only did men represent,
but also beasts,
such as all that were offered in sacrifice;
the lambs and sheep representing celestial things;
the doves and turtledoves, spiritual things;
and in like manner
the rams, goats, bullocks, and oxen
represented lower celestial and spiritual things.

And not only were animate things
used as representatives,
but also inanimate things,
such as the altar and even the stones of the altar,
the ark and the tabernacle with all that was in them,
and, as everyone may know,
the temple with all that was therein,
such as the lamps, the breads,
and the garments of Aaron.
Not these things only,
but also all the rites in the Jewish Church
were representative.
In the Ancient Churches,
representatives extended to
all the objects of the senses,
to mountains and hills, to valleys, plains,
rivers, brooks, fountains, and pools,
to groves and trees in general,
and to every tree in particular,
insomuch that each tree had some definite meaning;
all which, afterwards,
when the significative church had ceased,
were made representatives.
From all this it may be seen
what is meant by representatives.
And as things celestial and spiritual -- that is --
the things of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens,
and of the Lord's kingdom on earth
could be represented not only by men,
whosoever and of what quality soever they were,
but also by beasts,
and even by inanimate things,
it may now be seen what a representative church is.

The representatives were of such an efficacy
that all things that were done
according to the rites commanded
appeared holy before the spirits and angels,
as for instance
when the high priest washed himself with water,
when he ministered clothed in his pontifical garments,
when he stood before the burning lights,
no matter what kind of man he was,
even if most impure, and in his heart an idolater.
The case was the same with all the other priests.
For, as before said,
in representatives the person was not reflected upon,
but only the thing itself that was represented,
quite abstractly from the person,
as it was abstractly from the oxen, the bullocks,
and the lambs that were sacrificed,
or from the blood that was poured round about the altar,
and also abstractly from the altar itself; and so on.

This representative church was instituted --
after all internal worship was lost,
and when worship had become
not only merely external, but also idolatrous --
in order that there might be
some conjunction of heaven with earth,
that is, of the Lord through heaven with man,
even after the conjunction
by the internal things of worship had perished.

 

AC 1357 - Three Universal Kinds of Idoltatry

 AC 1357

There are three universal kinds of idolatry.
The first comes of the love of self;
the second, of the love of the world;
the third, of the love of pleasures.
All idolatrous worship
has one or other of these for its end.
The worship of idolaters can have no other ends;
for they know not and care not for eternal life;
they even deny it.
These three kinds of idolatry
are meant by the three sons of Terah.

AC 1326 - The Holy Can Never Be With the Profane

 AC 1326

. . . in proportion as anything from the love of self,
or from a person's proprium,
is introduced into worship,
in the same proportion internal worship departs,
that is, it comes to pass
that there is no internal worship.
Internal worship consists in
the affection of good and the acknowledgment of truth,
and in proportion as the love of self,
that is, in proportion as a person's proprium,
makes its approach, or enters in,
the affection of good and the acknowledgment of truth
depart, or go out.
The holy can never be with the profane,
just as heaven cannot be with hell,
but the one must take its departure from the other.
Such is the state and order in the Lord's kingdom.

~ The Lord Bless You ~

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you
and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26)

AC 1316 - Being One

AC 1316 [1, 2]

Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip.
(Genesis 11:6)

The people is said to be "one," and their "lip one,"
when all have as their end the common good of society,
the common good of the church,
and the kingdom of the Lord;
for when this is the case the Lord is in the end,
and all are a one from Him.
But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a person
whose end is his own good;
the proprium itself of a person estranges the Lord,
because thereby the person twists and turns
the common good of society,
and that of the church itself,
and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself,
insomuch that it is as if it existed for him.

But when the people is one, and the lip one,
that is, when the common good of all is regarded,
one person never appropriates to himself
another's delight,
or destroys another's freedom,
but insofar as he can
he promotes and increases it.
This is the reason why
the heavenly societies are as a one,
and this solely through mutual love from the Lord;
and the case is the same in the church.