Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 3420

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3420. And the Philistines stopped them up after the death of Abraham. That this signifies that they who were in the mere memory-knowledge of knowledges denied those truths, is evident from the signification of "stopping up," as being not to be willing to know, and what is the same, to deny and thus to obliterate them (concerning which above, n. 3412); and from the representation of the Philistines, as being those who are in the mere memory-knowledge of knowledges (concerning which above, n. 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413). Those are in the memory-knowledge of knowledges who are in the doctrinal things of faith and are not willing to know the truths of knowledges or of doctrinal things. The truths of knowledges or of doctrinal things are those which are of life, and which have regard to charity toward the neighbor and love to the Lord. The doctrine to which these doctrinal things and knowledges pertain, merely teaches them; and therefore the man who teaches what ought to be done, and does not do it, is not willing to know truths, because they are contrary to his life; and that which is contrary to his life he also denies. It is from these causes that the doctrinal things of love and charity, which in the Ancient Church were the whole of doctrine, are obliterated.


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