AE 117
And affliction,
(Revelation 2:9)
signifies anxiety from a longing to know truths.
. . . and these are in anxiety as to the spirit
when they do not understand.
That these have such anxiety
when they do not understand,
no one can know except those
who are in the affection of truth
for the sake of truth,
that is, who are in spiritual affection . . ..
The reason for this is,
that such are conjoined to the angels of heaven,
and angels continually long for truths,
because they long for intelligence and wisdom;
they long for these
as a hungry person longs for food.
For this reason also
intelligence and wisdom are called spiritual food.
A person also has this longing from infancy,
for when he is an infant,
and afterwards when a child,
he is conjoined to heaven,
and this longing is from heaven;
but with those who turn themselves to the world
it perishes.
They have such anxiety when they read the Word
and do not well understand it,
because all the truths of heaven and the church
are from the Word,
and lie concealed therein in its spiritual sense,
and are not opened to any
except those as are conjoined to heaven,
since that sense of the Word is in heaven.
Yet the spiritual sense itself of the Word
does not flow in with a person out of heaven,
but it flows into his affection,
and through this into the knowledges that he has,
and thus kindles his longing,
and he then receives
the genuine truths of the church
so far as he can see them
from the literal sense of the Word.
Everyone who is in the spiritual affection of truth
is conscious that the things that he knows are few,
and the things that he does not know are infinite.
He is aware, moreover,
that knowing and acknowledging this
is the first step towards wisdom;
and that those who pride themselves
on the things they know,
and believe themselves on account of these
to be most intelligent,
have not reached this first step.
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