Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 6716

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6716. And there went a man from the house of Levi. That this signifies the origin of truth from good, is evident from the signification of "a man," as being truth (see n. 3134); and from the signification of "from the house," as being the origin; and from the representation of Levi, as being good; for Levi in the supreme sense represents the Divine love (n. 3875), and in the internal sense spiritual love (n. 3875, 4497, 4502, 4503); and because he represents love, he represents good, for all good is of love. As regards the origin of truth from good, which is here signified by "a man from the house of Levi," be it known that in what follows, in the supreme sense, the subject treated of is the Lord, how as to His Human He became the law Divine, that is, truth itself. It is known that the Lord was born as are other men, and that when a child He learned to speak like other children, and that He then grew in knowledge, and also in intelligence, and in wisdom. [2] From this it is evident that His Human was not Divine from birth, but that He made it Divine by His own power. That He did this by His own power was because He was conceived of Jehovah, and hence the inmost of His life was Jehovah Himself; for the inmost of the life of every man, which is called the "soul," is from the father; but what this inmost puts on, which is called the "body," is from the mother. That the inmost of life, which is from the father, is continually flowing and working into the external, which is from the mother, and is in the effort to make this like itself, even in the womb, can be seen from sons, in that they are born into the disposition of the father, and sometimes grandsons and great-grandsons into that of the grandfather and great grandfather. The reason of this is that the soul, which is from the father, continually wills to make the external, which is from the mother, a likeness and image of itself. [3] This being the case with man, it can be seen that it was especially so with the Lord. His inmost was the Divine Itself, because it was Jehovah Himself, for He was His only-begotten Son; and because the inmost was the Divine Itself, was not this, more than in any man, able to make the external, which is from the mother, an image of itself, that is, like itself? thus making the Human, which was external and from the mother, Divine; and this by His own power, because the Divine, which was inmost, from which He worked into the Human, was His, as the soul of man, which is the inmost, is man's. And as the Lord advanced according to Divine order, He made His Human, when He was in the world, Divine truth; but afterward, when He was fully glorified, He made it Divine good, thus one with Jehovah. [4] How this was done is described in this chapter in the supreme sense, but as the things contained in the supreme sense, all of which treat of the Lord, surpass human understanding, I may in what follows set forth the things contained in this chapter in the internal sense. These treat of the beginning and successive states of truth Divine with the man of the church, that is, with the man who is being regenerated (see n. 6713, 6714). The reason why these things are contained in the internal sense, is that the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord's Human (n. 3138, 3212, 3245, 3246, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688).


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