7041. And it came to pass in the way, in the inn. That this signifies that the posterity of Jacob were in externals without an internal, is evident from the representation of Moses here. In what precedes, and in what follows, the subject treated of in the internal sense is the spiritual church, which is meant by the "sons of Israel;" but in these three verses it is that this church was to have been instituted among the posterity of Jacob, but that it could not be instituted among them because they were in externals without an internal. For this reason Moses here does not represent the law or the Word, but that nation or posterity from Jacob of which he was to be the leader; thus he also represents the worship of that nation, for everywhere in the Word a leader or judge, and also a king, represents the nation and people of which he is the leader, judge, or king, because he is its head (see n. 4789). This is the reason why Moses is not here named, and yet by its coming to pass in the way, in the inn, he is meant, and that Jehovah then met him, and sought to kill him, when yet He had before so expressly commanded that he should go and return to Egypt. By "being in the way" is signified what is instituted; and by the "inn" is signified the external natural or sensuous (n. 5495). And because as before said the subject treated of is the church to be instituted among that posterity, therefore that is signified which belonged to that nation, namely, an external without an internal, thus also an external natural or sensuous, but separated. (That the sensuous separated from the internal is full of fallacies and the consequent falsities, and that it is against the truths and goods of faith, see n. 6948, 6949.) [2] Before the things which follow are unfolded, see what has been already shown concerning that posterity, namely, that with them there was the representative of a church, but not a church (see n. 4281, 4288, 6304); that Divine worship among them was merely external separate from internal, and that to this worship they were driven by external means (n. 4281, 4433, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4903); that they were not chosen, but that they obstinately insisted upon being a church (n. 4290, 4293); that they were of such a nature that they could represent holy things, although they were in bodily and worldly loves (n. 4293, 4307); that that nation was such from its first origins (n. 4314, 4316, 4317); and many other things which have been shown concerning that nation (see n. 4444, 4459, 4503, 4750, 4815, 4818, 4820, 4825, 4832, 4837, 4868, 4874, 4911, 4913, 5057, 6877).