Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 119

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119. This is why, in the Word, the Lord in respect of love is likened to the sun and in respect of faith to the moon, and why also the sun signifies love from the Lord to the Lord, and the moon signifies faith from the Lord in the Lord, as in the following passages:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. Isa. xxx. 26.

And when I shall extinguish thee I will cover the heavens and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine. All the luminaries of light in the heavens will I make dark over thee, and I will set darkness upon the land. Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8.

I will darken the sun in his going forth, and the moon shall not make her light to shine. Isa. xiii. 10.

The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining, . . . The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. Joel ii. 2, 10, 31; iii. 15.

The sun became black as hairy sackcloth, and the moon became as blood, and the stars . . . fell unto the earth. Rev. vi. 12, 13.

Immediately after the affliction (A.V. tribulation) of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. Matt. xxiv. 29.

and elsewhere.

In these passages, the "sun" signifies love, the "moon" faith and the "stars" cognitions of good and truth.# These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when they no longer exist. That the Lord is seen as a Sun in heaven is evident also from His transfiguration before Peter, James and John,

His face did shine as the sun. Matt. xvii. 2.

Thus the Lord was seen by those disciples when they were withdrawn from the body, and were in the light of heaven. It was because of this correspondence that the ancient people with whom the Church was representative, turned the face to the sun in the east during Divine worship. Because of this also, they gave their temples an eastern aspect. # "Stars" and "constellations" in the Word signify cognitions of good and truth (n. 2495, 2849, 4697).


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