10445. 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens' means forms of good and truths, and cognitions of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed', when it has reference to heaven and the Church, as the goodness and truth there, dealt with in 1940, 3038, 3310, 3373, 3671, 6158, 10249; and from the meaning of 'the stars' as cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, dealt with in 2495, 2849, 4697. In the sense of the letter 'multiplying the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel as the stars of the heavens' is used to mean multiplying the Israelite and Jewish nation in countless numbers; but since spiritual and celestial realities are meant by names in the Word, and heaven and the Church are meant by the names of those three, 'their seed' means the forms of good and the truths that exist in heaven and in the Church. The reason why it says 'as the stars of the heavens' is that where comparisons occur in the Word, these too have a spiritual meaning, 3579, 8989. Here a comparison is made with 'the stars of the heavens' because forms of good and truths - cognitions of them - are what is meant by 'stars'.