Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 100

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100. That 'a garden' means intelligence and 'Eden' love, is also evident in Isaiah,

Jehovah will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the Garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness will be found in her, confession and the voice of song. Isa 51:3.

Here 'wilderness', 'joy', and 'confession' are terms used by the prophet to express the celestial things of faith, that is, things that belong to love. But 'desert', 'gladness', and 'the voice of song' express the spiritual things of faith, which in turn are matters of the understanding The former relate to 'Eden', the latter to 'a garden'. For throughout this prophet dual expressions for the same thing are constantly occurring, with one expression meaning celestial things, the other spiritual. For more about what the garden in Eden means, see at verse to below.


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