1139. Because no one buyeth their merchandise anymore signifies that the falsities and evils by which they make gain are no more received. This is evident from the signification of "merchandise," as being the falsities and evils of doctrine and of that religion, by which they make gain, which consists in honors and riches. (That this is the signification of "merchandise" is evident from the signification of "merchants," as being those who acquire and sell such things, see above n. 1138.) What falsities and evils in particular are here signified by "merchandise" will be seen in what follows, where they are enumerated. This "merchandise," since it belongs to Babylon, which is called a "harlot" and "the mother of the whoredoms of the earth," is what is meant in the Word by "the merchandise of whoredoms"; and that this means the falsifications and adulterations of good and truth may be seen above (n. 695). Also from the signification of "not to buy anymore," as being not to receive anymore. Not being received means that their evils and falsities are no longer received in the spiritual world, although they are received in the natural world; for all who come after death into the spiritual world from Babylon on the earth are explored, and according to their loves are sent into societies; the evil are sent into infernal societies, and the good are instructed and are then received into heaven according to their reception of truth and good from the Lord.
(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith and respecting the Lord)
[2] Man has a feeling and perception that life is in him, because the life of the Lord is in him as the light and heat of the sun are in a subject. This light and heat belong not to the subject but to the sun in the subject, for they withdraw with the sun, but when they are in the subject they in appearance wholly belong to it; from light the subject has color as if it were in it, and from heat it has vegetative life as if it were in it. But this is much more true of the light and heat from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord, whose light is the light of life and whose heat is the heat of life, for the sun from which these proceed is the Lord's Divine love, while man is the recipient subject. This light and heat never withdraw from the recipient, which is man, and when they are in man they are in appearance wholly his own. From the light he has the ability to understand, and from the heat the ability to will. From this, that the light and heat, although they are not his own, are seemingly wholly in the recipient, and from this that they never withdraw, also from this that they affect his inmosts, which are remote from the sight of his understanding and from the feeling of his will, there must needs be the appearance that they are innate, that is, they seem to be in him, and thus what they effect seems to be from him. From this it is that man does not know otherwise than that he thinks from himself and that he wills from himself; and yet he does not in the least do this from himself, for it is impossible for this light and heat to be so united to the recipient as to be his own, precisely as it is impossible for the light of the sun to be united to an earthly subject and become material as the subject is. The same is true of heat. But the light of life and the heat of life move and fill their recipient in the exact measure of the quality of his acknowledgment that they are not his but are the Lord's, and the quality of acknowledgment is in exact accord with the quality of love in doing the commandments, which are uses.
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