Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 7073

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7073. I also spoke with them about sheep and lambs; but they would not hear about such things, because these were perceived by them as earthly. The reason of this was that they did not understand what innocence is, which lambs signify, which I observed from the fact that when I said that lambs do not appear represented in heaven as lambs, but that when they are mentioned, innocence is perceived in place of them, they then said that they do not know what innocence is, but that they know it by name only. The reason is that they are affected solely by knowledges, and not by uses, which are the ends of knowledges (see n. 6815); thus not being affected by the ends of knowledges, they cannot know from internal perception what innocence is.


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