Series and Degrees in the Latin Word

 

SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD
AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN

Address by the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn before the XXV British Assembly,
London, August 1st, 1932

In GENESIS there are three stories in which the subject is the right of the firstborn, and in which this right appears to be taken from. the elder son and to be given to the younger brother. These stories treat of the twin brothers Esau and Jacob; the twin brothers Zarah and Pharez, the sons of Judah by Tamar; and Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph. In each case the subject is the relation of good and truth, or charity and faith, in the natural, and the apparent primacy of truth and the actual primacy of good. In many respects there is a resemblance between the birth of the twin sons of Isaac and Judah, and between the blessing of Esau and Jacob, and Manasseh and Ephraim, so much so that the literal sense of the ARCANA CELESTIA presents the appearance as if the subject considered were the same, and it is only by means of seeing the series of GENESIS as a whole, that the essential difference can become manifest.

As is well known, the seven days of creation, in the first chapters of GENESIS is a summary of the whole of the Word; thus it is a summary of the whole of the Glorification of the Lord, and therefore of the whole of the regeneration of man, and also of the whole history of the Church. This is according to the law that the first of a series is a summary of all that follows. This law is also manifest in the first verse of the Word: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. And it also applies to the first book of the Word, namely GENESIS; for if the book of GENESIS is seen in a series, it becomes manifest that it treats of the complete Glorification of the Lord, and of the complete regeneration of man. It is according to this series that we will consider the subject.

In the inmost sense, as has been said, GENESIS treats of the Glorification of the Lord, from Conception to His Ascension. In the inmost representative sense it treats of the regeneration of the celestial man whose regeneration is a likeness of the Glorification of the Lord; in the interior representative sense it treats of the regeneration of the spiritual man, the regeneration of whom is an image of the Glorification of the Lord. The reason the regeneration of the spiritual man is an image and not a likeness is because the spiritual man is not regenerated as to all the degrees of the mind, and he is therefore not fully a man. In a lower sense it treats of the regeneration of the spiritual natural man.

The essential internal sense in relation to man is always in relation to the celestial man, the regeneration of whom is alone an image and likeness of the Glorification of the Lord. This internal sense is at present far in the distance like a mountain-range covered with clouds; nevertheless, of the Divine Mercy of the Lord, certain general, although incomplete outlines begin to become manifest. The Word is written in a Divine series, which series as it is in itself can be seen by the Lord alone, nevertheless there are indefinite series which can become visible to men. All genuine spiritual sight of men depends on being in one of these Divine series; if man is not in a Divine series he can see no genuine truth in any of the Testaments of the Word. If these series are not opened by the Lord to the man of the New Church, he remains in the literal sense of the Third Testament, in which case he can have no perception of the infinity of the Latin Word, although he may acknowledge its infinity from the general statements of Doctrine. That this however is not an internal acknowledgment, is evident from the fact that he imagines that he is in the full light of the spiritual Sun in reading the literal sense of the Latin Word, while in fact he is in a cloud and can hardly see that which is too far to touch with the hand.

It is asked: But why emphasize the clouds of the literal sense of the Latin Word and not its Glory? This is not the question. The question is not what man should emphasize, but what is the truth. If man in first reading the Latin Word is in dense clouds, it is important that he should know it, lest he become as one of those of whom the Lord said: “If ye were blind ye should have no sin; but now ye say: We see; therefore your sin remaineth”, JOHN 9 :41.

It is obvious from Doctrine that the Latin Word is infinite and thus contains infinite Wisdom; yet this is contrary to the appearance of a man who is in’ its literal sense, for the ideas contained appear to be limited in number, in fact so very limited, that a man who has spent the few years of his life on earth studying them, may easily come into the fantasy that he has a general knowledge of the contents of the Latin Word. Concerning the Word we read: “That such is the infinity of spiritual seed or of the truths of the Word, can be seen from angelic Wisdom, which is all from the Word. This increases in the Angels to eternity, and the wiser they become, the more clearly do they see that wisdom is without end, and perceive that they are only in the outer court, and cannot in the smallest particular attain to the Lord’s Divine Wisdom, which they call a great deep. Since then the Word is from this great deep, because it is from the Lord, it is plain that there is a kind of infinity in every part”, T.C.R. 290. Swedenborg at the entrance to the palace of Wisdom was told that the requirement for entrance was the acknowledgment that what one knew, compared to what one did not know, was as a drop of water to the ocean, which Swedenborg said he acknowledged more than others.

The subject of the ARCANA CELESTIA in the internal sense is the regeneration of man, concerning which we read: “The arcana of regeneration are so innumerable that scarcely a ten-thousandth part of them can be known by the Angels, and those that they do know are what make their intelligence and wisdom”, A.C. 5398. What then is known by man? From the above it is evident that the first of wisdom is to acknowledge that what we understand of the Latin Word is as nothing, and that we are in the densest cloud as to all internal and inmost things. But while this may be acknowledged with the mouth, if man has not been given some perception of where the infinite and to man indefinite regions or deeps of the Word, and especially the Latin Word, lie, in his heart he is apt to revert to the fantasy that he has a general acquaintance with the contents of the Latin Word, and this especially for the reason that such a conception flatters his self-intelligence.
Swedenborg was once granted to see the occupied regions of Heaven and the regions still unoccupied, and he saw that those which were occupied were as nothing compared to those as yet unoccupied.
It is the internal sense of the Word which makes Heaven; in a spiritual idea the unoccupied regions of the Heavens is the internal of the Word which is yet to be opened and appropriated by Heaven and the Church. It is the purpose of this -paper to give some slight indication as to where certain unoccupied regions lie.

In application to the regeneration of man, the first eleven chapters of GENESIS treat of the operation of the Lord before the actual rebirth of man. These chapters are said to be made historicals, while those which follow are real historicals.
The difference between made historicals and real historicals is that the former are due entirely to influx from within, while the latter are based on experience from without. In relation to man this signifies that before the actual birth of the new man the Lord operates from within, preparing man for regeneration, but that after man is born anew, he cooperates as of himself and apparently from without, although this latter operation is equally the Lord’s with man as was the former, as is indicated by the fact that the chapters before and after the eleventh chapter are equally in a Divine series. Before man has been born again he indeed appears to act as of himself, but it is an as of itself not yet in himself, as is clear from children who also have a kind of as of itself, which is not really theirs.
In the twelfth chapter commences the story of Abram. Abram in the supreme sense represents the Lord and the states of His Glorification in infancy. Actual regeneration in man does not commence until adult life, wherefore in relation to man, Abram represents the infancy of the new man. For as it is said: “Man must be conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew”, thus man of the second birth, or the regenerated man, has, like the man of the first birth, to pass in an orderly manner through the different ages of life. The man born again is first a spiritual infant, and as such he is held in celestial things from the Lord, but as to his actual life he is entirely in sensual things, the sensual in this story being represented by Lot. The sensual things are particularly the sensual things of the literal sense of the Word. It has been believed in the Church that the Old Testament teaches sensual truth, the New Testament natural truth, and the Third Testament rational truth, and there is indeed a series in which this is true. But in the first state after the rebirth of the man of the New Church, all three Testaments are seen sensually. That the Third Testament is at first seen sensually is evident from the fact that the first things which delight are the external appearances of the spiritual world, which are sensual appearances. Even the inmost statements of Doctrine concerning the Divine Human are at first sensual. For the delight remains in the appearance of the Lord in the Sun of Heaven, and as seen by the external eyes of Angels. thus it is in the sensual; nevertheless in the sensual of the new infancy the celestial is present.

In the next state man is instructed in the scientifics of the Word. Scientifics are a degree of truth more interior than sensual truth; by means of these truths the natural mind is brought into order under ruling principles. This first ordering of the natural mind is described by the story of Abram in Egypt. If the subject being considered is to be understood, there must be some knowledge concerning the natural that is being treated of, for there are many persons in GENESIS which represent the natural, as for example the servant of Abraham, Esau and Jacob, Ephraim and Manasseh, the ten sons of Israel which came to Joseph, and the Pharaoh in the time of Joseph. Yet while all these are called the natural, it is evident that there is a very great difference as to the representation of these different persons, and in fact that it is entirely different naturals that are treated of. For example, the natural that is signified by Esau and Jacob is born from the celestial rational represented by Isaac, wherefore previous to the birth of Esau and Jacob, this natural does not exist. Joseph also signifies the rational and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh a natural from the rational. Nevertheless the rational that Joseph represents is an entirely different rational from that which was represented by Isaac. For in the days of Isaac the rational that was represented by Joseph did not as yet exist. The rational represented by Isaac was born from the inmost represented by Abraham, while the rational that was represented by Joseph was born from the spiritual natural represented by Israel, that is, it is a rational raised out of the regenerated spiritual natural. If there is no distinct idea concerning the natural that is being considered, the subject remains in darkness; this is the reason that it is necessary to give certain outlines of GENESIS before entering upon the subject of the contention as to the birth-right. In the Word there are innumerable names which signify the celestial, the spiritual, the natural, the internal, the external, and so forth, and yet there are no. two names which signify exactly the same thing. Again the same name has often many significations, as for example Abram and Abraham have the following significations: Those who are in idolatry, the Lord in His infancy, the Divine itself, the Human of the Lord, the rational, the celestial, the good of the pure intellectory. Isaac represents the spiritual and also the celestial rational. Joseph represents the external of the rational, the celestial of the natural, the celestial of the spiritual, the internal celestial, and the Divine spiritual, besides several other representations. In fact the signification is always according to the series, wherefore a name can never occur twice with exactly the same representation; and a name in any particular place has a different signification according to the series which is being unfolded, which series are infinite, and in relation to man beyond number. Hence it is evident that unless a man is in a Divine series of the Word he can never see anything of the Word in a genuine sense.

And as these series in the Word are infinite, it is manifest with what dense clouds the ARCANA CELESTIA is veiled, and that it is only by the Mercy of the Lord that a man can see any genuine internal truth.

We will not consider here how the natural-, the spiritual-, and the celestial rational are formed, and how by influx into them the genuine Doctrine is formed. It is, however, important to know that the internal that is represented by Abraham and from which the rational is born, is above the Heavens, thus above the consciousness of the celestial Heaven and the celestial Church, and that it only becomes manifest to the celestial in the interior or celestial rational represented by Isaac.

That the Lord alone thought from intellectual truth, represented by Sarah, is taught in the ARCANA CELESTIA, n. 1904. That the inmost represented by Abraham and Sarah does not come to the perception of man is taught in n. 1940. That this internal is only perceived by man or Angel when it flows into the rational is taught in n. 2093.
That the spiritual, or those who are in the exterior rational, are represented by Ishmael, and the celestial, or those who are in the interior rational, are represented by Isaac, is taught in n. 2078 and further in n. 2661, from which the following is quoted: “The Lord did not come into the world to save the celestial but the spiritual. The Most Ancient Church, called man, was celestial. … By Isaac is represented the Lord’s Divine Rational, and by him are also signified the celestial who are called heirs; and by Ishmael is represented the Lord’s merely human rational, and by him are also signified the spiritual who are called sons”. From the above it is clear that there is no question of the existence of the natural that is represented by Esau and Jacob, before the birth of the celestial rational represented by Isaac, for these are born from this rational. If this is not known by the Church while reading of the inversion of state that takes place when Esau, representing good, becomes the lord of Jacob, representing truth, there is the danger that the Church might fall into the “celestial heresy”, which in the past was so destructive of the genuine things of the Church, in spite of the fact that it appeared to be confirmed by many things from the literal sense of the Latin Word. In the natural that exists previous to the natural born from the celestial rational, there can be no such order as that signified by Esau as being the lord of Jacob.

Previous to the regeneration of the celestial rational the Lord indeed has His natural in man, and it is in fact by this natural that the truth of the rational is united to the good of the rational, but this natural is the servant of the inmost represented by Abraham, and is called the servant, the elder of his house; see GENESIS, chapter 24. This natural is the servant of the inmost and does its bidding, wherefore this natural is never attributed to man as his own.

Although the natural that is represented by Esau and Jacob is born from the regenerated rational, the natural after this birth must also be regenerated. For at first it is only the internal of the natural that is from the rational; Esau signifies the good of the natural from the rational, and Jacob the truth of the natural from the rational. Although Esau was born first, a dispute arises as to the birth-right, and this for two reasons. First, because there is an appearance that the truth of faith precedes the good of life. And second, because before regeneration truth must be apparently in the first place. The reason truth must be apparently in the first place is because before the will is regenerated, nothing can proceed from it but evil and falsity, wherefore it has to be in apparent subjection to the truth of Doctrine. Nevertheless that even from birth the good of the natural is the first is evident from the fact that no truth can be received with acknowledgment except from delight; wherefore it is the delight or the good of the natural that introduces. But previous to regeneration, this good which introduced the truth does not manifest itself as the good of the natural; and as the only good which manifests itself is not as yet genuine, it sells its birth-right to truth. The birth-right was sold for a mass of pottage, by which is represented a chaotic mass of doctrinal things. All things of the mind must .be ordered by means of good from the Lord which flows in by an internal way. All things which enter from without, from the Word or from the Doctrine of the Church, are in the mind a chaotic mass of doctrinal things, until they have been so ordered from the Lord; and this in spite of the fact that to the man it appears as if he understood the Word and the Doctrine, and thus they appear to be in order in his mind; but this appearance is a fallacy, for truth is nothing but the form of good. Wherefore if it is not good which has ordered the mind the doctrinals with man are not alive and appear in the spiritual world as something material, fibrous, and closed up. Nevertheless a man must have this chaotic mass of doctrinals, for until they are present, there can be no establishment of order in his mind: wherefore Esau must sell his birth-right for this pottage. But he did so, saying: “I am about to die”, which signifies that good would rise again and .assume the priority.

Since the beginning of the world there has been a dispute as to which has the priority, good or truth, or faith or charity. In the New Church this dispute centered about a belief that is known in the GENERAL CHURCH as the “celestial heresy”. Those in this belief, which dominated the thought of the church in New ‘England in the past generation, emphasized the oft repeated passages in the Writings that truth is out of good, and therefore that a minister should teach out of his goodness, and they minimized the importance of Doctrine, which minimization they were also able to confirm by passages from the Writings. At the same time they took Divine authority away from the Writings and attributed it to their own goodness, and thus destroyed the essentials of the Church.

The ACADEMY rebuked these teachings by showing that good without truth is merely natural, and that if man were not in the truth he could never come into genuine good; at the same time bringing forth the teachings of the Writings concerning themselves, as being the Lord, and the presence of the Lord in the New Church. Thus it was shown that the placing of the authority of the goodness of man superior to the books in which the Lord had made his Second Coming, was profane; thus the genuine New Church was saved from a false doctrine, that, if unchecked, would have destroyed everything genuine. The ACADEMY, however, did not enter into and unfold the genuine meaning of the innumerable passages in the Latin Word which teach that all genuine truth is out of good and that truth is the form of good, and hence that good is the first of the Church and not truth. In fact, by placing the Writings above everything, they appeared to give to the truth of the Writings in the Church the right of primogeniture, and to make good secondary; and indeed this appearance was essential for the salvation of the Church, and led the Church through a necessary and therefore orderly state. But the danger arises that this appearance might be taken for the reality. Because of the perversion that took place in the past, men feared to enter into the passages in the Latin Word which had been perverted. and when any one touched upon them he was warned of the danger. However the Rev. E. S. Hyatt did treat concerning the subject in one of his sermons in exposition of the text concerning the house built upon a rock and the house built upon the sand, in which he showed that by the sand in the New Church is signified the scientifics or appearances of the literal sense of the Writings, in the mind of the man of the New Church, which if they are not ordered from the Lord by means of good proceeding from Him, are merely sand, and being perverted by the things of man’s proprium are not a basis upon which a house can stand in a storm. And that the rock is these same scientifics ordered and united into a one from the Lord by influx of good from within, and that thus in the New Church it is the Writings in the mind of the Church, so ordered by the Lord who alone is the rock, upon which the Church can be founded; and hence that it is the Divine good in the Church that is the primary and never the appearances of truth that a man draws from the literal sense of the Writings.

The relation of good and truth in the natural and how the order is inverted, is described as follows: “And he said: The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. This signifies that in this case the intellectual part is of truth which is within, but the will part is of good which is without, thus that they are of inverted order. . . . Where good is, there is truth, both being necessary in order that there may be anything; but the influx causes the truth therein to be such as it is. The influx takes place in this way: The good of the rational flows into the natural in two ways; through the shortest way into the good itself of the natural, thus immediately; and through the good of the natural into the truth there; this good and this truth is what is represented by Esau and his hunting. The good of the rational also flows into the good of the natural by a way less short, namely through the truth of the rational, and by this influx forms something like good, but it is truth. It is according to order that the good of the rational should flow into the good of the natural, and at the same time into its truth, immediately; and also through the truth of the rational into the good there, thus mediately; and in like manner into the truth of the natural both immediately and mediately; and when this is the case, then the influx is according to order. Such influx exists with those who have been regenerated; but as before said, there is another influx before they have been regenerated, namely that the good of the rational does not inflow immediately into the good of the natural, but mediately through the truth of the rational, and thus presents something like good in the natural, but which is not genuine good, and consequently not genuine truth; but it is such that inmostly it really has good from the influx through the truth of the rational, but no further”, A.C. 3563.

It must be noted that the rational that is here signified by Isaac and Rebekah, is the rational that has been formed by the influx of both good and truth through the internal man. As we read: “With man also the first rational is conceived and born through the influx of the internal man into the life of the affection of scientifics of his external man; but his second rational out of the influx of the good and truth from the Lord through the internal man. This second rational he receives from the Lord, when he is being regenerated; for he is then sensible in his rational of what the good and truth of faith are”, A.C. 2093. The first rational is formed from the Lord through the good which is above the Heavens (Abraham) as a father and is born out of the affection of the scientifics of the Word, or the scientifics of the Doctrine of the Church, -thus it is formed by the delight of a direct reading, of the text of the Word or of Doctrine, hence it appears as if the truth of the first rational entered from without. But both, the good -and the truth of the second rational enter manifestly from within, for they are born from the good and truth of the internal which is above the Heavens, a good and truth of which the Lord alone was conscious, represented by Abraham and Sarah. If there is not some perception of what this internal rational is, there can be no understanding of the natural born from this rational, nor of the influx into this natural, nor of the inversion of state that takes place in it.

The nature of the influx of the good of the rational, signified by Isaac, into the truth of the rational, signified by Rebekah, and from this into the truth of the natural, signified by Jacob, and thence into the good of the natural, signified by Esau, previous to regeneration, in which case truth is within and good without, and the nature of the state after regeneration when there is an immediate influx of the good of the rational into the good of the natural and thence into its truth, which influx then becomes primary and the former influx secondary, is a subject which can with difficulty be explained on account of a lack of knowledge. Here we will confine ourselves to certain external illustrations by which some idea of the subject may be had.
The most essential rational concept that has been given to the Church was expressed by the words: The Writings are the Word. The good of the rational from which this rational truth came, was the desire to be led by the Lord and not by one’s own intelligence; if this love of being led by the Lord and not by self, had not been present in the Church, the Church could never have drawn this Doctrine out of the literal sense of the Latin Word, although when seen, there are many passages in the Latin Word which confirm it. This illustrates the influx of the good of the rational into the truth of the rational, and also the teaching that Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial origin.

Again, in the early days of the ACADEMY, from a love of order, especially from a desire that the Lord’s Divine order should prevail on earth, it was seen that goods and truths of the New Church in their true order were the means of the salvation of the New Church, and that the New Church was provided from the Lord for the salvation of the world.

As in all things there should be a correspondence between the spiritual and the natural, it was seen that there should be a distinctive social life in the New Church and that internal friendship was only possible with those within the Church, for such association alone corresponds to the association of Angels with their goods and truths. This doctrine was put into practice and thus became the good of the natural in the various societies of the Church. Thus there was an influx from the good of the rational into the truth of the rational, and thence into the truth of the natural, and finally into the good of the natural. Bat later this order must be inverted, that is, within it there must be an influx of the good of the rational into the good of the natural, and thence into its truth. In reference to the above illustration, the good of the rational is the love of the orderly arrangement of the goods and truths of the Church; when this flows immediately into the good of the natural, it takes the form of the love of those who are in similar goods and truths. In this state a perception is given as to the goods and truths in the natural, and it is seen that because a man is called a New Churchman, or because he belongs to an organization of the New Church, he does not necessarily belong to the essential New Church, according to which the essentials of association take place. In. such a case the former influx becomes the external and the immediate influx the internal, and thus an inversion takes place in the natural. But before this inversion can take place in the natural, and good assumes its birth-right, many states must be passed through. These states are represented by Jacob’s sojourn with Laban, where he acquired his wives, eleven of his sons, and his herds and flocks. His wives signify the external and the internal affections of truth, his sons the goods and truths of the Church in the natural, which are born from natural truth as a father and out of the affections of internal and of external truth as a mother; the flocks and herds signify the goods and truths of the Church in general which they possessed. Until these are possessed by the truth of the natural, or the Doctrine of truth in the natural, represented by Jacob, there can be no question of the inversion of state that is represented by Jacob submitting himself to Esau as his servant.

When the inversion takes place, there is an influx of truth into the natural from within, from the interior man, which truth man could not observe before. These truths are represented by the four hundred men that came with Esau, see A.C. 4249. These truths are the result of the ordering of the good of the natural from the Lord, see A.C. 9337.

When this inversion has taken place, the spiritual man is regenerated; for the natural is then regenerated and receives influx out of the rational, from the Lord. “For when the natural has been regenerated, the things which flow in from the Lord through Heaven, thus through the rational into the natural, are received because they agree. For the natural is nothing but a receptacle of good and truth out of the rational from the Lord. By the natural is meant the external man, and by the rational the internal man”. A.C. 4612.

But in the story of GENESIS, as soon as this order has been established, a new disorder arises in the natural, represented by the dreams of Joseph and his consequent rejection by his brothers, see GENESIS chapter 37, and the following chapter which treats of Judah and the women he took. That these two chapters are closely related, is indicated by the opening words: “And it came to pass at this time”, see A.C. 4814.

Judah in this chapter signifies the evils and falsities in the natural, which are opposed to the celestial. With the regenerated spiritual man all things in man from the inmost to the natural are held in order from the Lord, but with him the evils and falsities opposed to the celestial, although quiescent, have not been conquered; wherefore if man is to become celestial, these evils and falsities must manifest themselves. Thus from the thirty-seventh to the last chapter of GENESIS, in their most essential sense in relation to man, the regeneration of man from being spiritual to becoming celestial, is treated of. As this subject is of such an interior nature, it can with difficulty be illustrated at the present time.

It may be noted that from Lot and later from Eliezer of Damascus, through Ishmael to Isaac, there is an ascending series which finally culminates in the recognition of Rebekah as Isaac’s wife, in the twenty-sixth chapter of GENESIS. In this series Abram or Abraham, signifying the internal, is the essential which causes the ascent. Then there is a descending series, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which culminates in the regenerated natural from within, Jacob being the son of Isaac, and Isaac the son of Abraham. If man, or the Church, is to become celestial on the basis of this regenerated natural, another ascending series must commence. This series is: Jacob, the natural; Israel, the spiritual from the natural, or the celestial spiritual of the natural, see A.C. 4570; Benjamin, the spiritual of the celestial, which is intermediate between the internal natural and the external of the rational; Joseph, the celestial of the spiritual, or the external of the rational, see A.C. 4570; and finally Joseph as the internal celestial. In the regenerated celestial man the rational is born in the regenerated natural; Joseph was the son of Jacob, or Israel; while the rational of the spiritual man, Ishmael, is born from the internal represented by Abraham, and is not elevated from a regenerated natural which had been attributed to the man as his own.

The celestial of the spiritual then establishes a new order in the natural, Joseph rules over Egypt, and the goods and truths of the Church in the natural submit themselves, Joseph’s brethren bow down to Joseph. From the internal celestial, Joseph, are born a new will and understanding in the natural, Ephraim and Manasseh, into which the internal celestial flows, through the spiritual of the natural, Israel, see GENESIS, chapter 48, concerning the blessing of Manasseh and Ephraim by Israel. This last descending series culminates in the genuine will and understanding of the Word, in the natural of the celestial man or Church.

In the beginning of the creation of the celestial man from the spiritual, a contention again arises as to which is the firstborn of the natural, good or truth. This is represented by the birth of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar, Zarah and Pharez. The reason this contention again arises is because in every new state, truth again comes apparently in the first place. Zarah, signifying good, opened the womb with his hand, which signifies that the new birth takes place from the power of good, but that nevertheless truth manifests itself first, signified by Pharez coming forth first. Concerning which we read as follows: “Unless there were light from good inwardly in man, he would never be able to see truths so as to acknowledge and believe them”, A.C. 4930. When man first reads the Word, particularly the Latin Word, it appears to him as truth. It is only afterwards that a man can come to see that internally the Word is the good which is inwardly in man from the Lord, and that the truths of the Word which are apparently from without by means of the senses, are only genuine truths with the man in so far as they are a form of this good.

The final doubt as to which is the firstborn in the natural, good or truth, arises in connection with the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. In the blessing Joseph, the internal of the celestial, accounts good, signified by Manasseh, as primary; but Israel, the spiritual from the natural, accounts truth, represented by Ephraim, as primary. Due to the influx of the internal of the celestial into the spiritual from the natural, Joseph putting his hand on his father’s, the spiritual does indeed acknowledge good as primary, but nevertheless Ephraim was given the primary blessing for the reason that truth is more manifest; and also for the reason that even with the celestial man and the celestial Church it is an eternal truth that “The Church is from the Word, and is such as its understanding of the Word”, S.S. 76.

It is obvious that the foregoing is the briefest outline, and that if the subject were to be opened as to its particulars, it would fill innumerable volumes. It may also appear too difficult for many to comprehend. While it is not necessary that all should enter into the particulars, it is necessary that all should acknowledge that what they know of the contents of the Latin Word is but as a drop compared to the ocean; for it is an acknowledgment of this truth from the heart that introduces a man into the palace of wisdom. To the natural mind this cannot but appear as an exaggeration, for it is contrary to the appearance of the literal sense of the Latin Word as seen by men. This truth cannot be acknowledged rationally unless it is acknowledged that the Latin Word has an internal sense which does not appear in the letter, an acknowledgment at which the natural mind tends to rebel. For the following words have a universal application: “How greatly those deny the internal sense of the Word has also been given me to see from such persons in the other life, for when the existence of an internal sense of the Word that does not appear in its literal sense, and that treats of love to the Lord and the neighbor, is merely mentioned in their presence, there is perceived not only denial by them, but also aversion and even loathing. This is the primary cause of this denial”, A.C. 3427.

If it is perceived that a man does not know one ten-thousandth part of a ten-thousandth part of the things in the ARCANA CELESTIA concerning the regeneration of man, and that the internal things concerning the Glorification of the Lord are a thousand times still more deeply hidden, it is obvious that the description of the Glorification of the Lord, which is called the celestial sense, as it at first appears to man on the surface of the Latin Word, is only an outermost covering, and that the celestial things themselves as seen by the celestial Angels and also the spiritual things are hidden far within.