Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 6013

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6013. And their babes. That this signifies together with those things which are of innocence, is evident from the signification of "babes," as being innocence (see n. 3183, 5608). It is said "with those things which are of innocence," also "which are of charity," for the reason that without innocence and charity, natural truth cannot be caused to advance by spiritual truths; for in order that truth may be genuine, it must derive its essence and life from charity, and charity from innocence. For the interior things which vivify truth succeed one another in the following order: inmost is innocence; next lower is charity; and lowest is work of charity from truth or according to truth. The reason why they succeed one another in this order is that they so succeed one another in the heavens. For the inmost or third heaven is the heaven of innocence; the middle or second heaven is the heaven of charity, within which is innocence from the inmost heaven; and the ultimate or first heaven is the heaven of truth, within which is charity from the second heaven, and within this is innocence from the third. All these must be in the same order with man, for in respect to his interiors man is formed after the image of the three heavens; and therefore a regenerated man is a heaven in particular or in the least form. But in respect to his exteriors, especially the body, he is formed after the image of the world, and therefore he was called by the ancients a microcosm. For the ear is formed after the whole nature of air and sound; the eye after the whole nature of ether and light; the tongue after the whole sense of the solvent and fluent parts in liquids; the nostrils after the sense of things fluent in the atmosphere; the touch after the sense of cold and heat, also of things of the earth that have weight; and so on. As man's external senses are formed after the whole image of the natural world, so his internal senses, which belong to his understanding and will, are formed after the whole image of heaven, to the end that every man may be in particular a recipient of Divine good from the Lord, as heaven is in general.


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