6275. 'And he blessed Joseph' means a foretelling about the truth belonging to the understanding and the good belonging to the will, both of which possess life from the internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'blessing' as a foretelling, dealt with in 6230, 6254; and from the representation of Ephraim and Manasseh, to whom the name 'Joseph' applies here, as truth belonging to the understanding and good belonging to the will within the natural, which are born from the internal, dealt with in 6234, 6249. The fact that the name 'Joseph' is used to mean his sons is evident from the actual blessing, which declares,
The angel redeeming me from every evil, may he bless the boys, and in them will my name be called.
And the reason why they are called 'Joseph' is that the goodness and truth within the natural, which are represented by 'Manasseh and Ephraim', exist there as the internal itself.
[2] Internal and external are, it is true, distinct and separate from each other; but within the natural, where they are both together, the internal resides as if within a form of its own, perfectly suited to it. That form does not at all act independently but under the direction of the internal within it, and so is merely an agent. It is like the efficient cause within an effect. The efficient cause and the effect are distinct and separate from each other; yet the efficient cause resides within the effect as if the effect were its own form, perfectly suited to it, and through that form it acts as the cause in the sphere where the effect is produced. Something similar to this goes on with goodness and truth in a person's natural, which are born from the internal. The internal clothes itself with such things as belong to the natural, so that it can reside there and lead its life there. But the things with which it clothes itself are nothing else than coverings, which do not act independently.
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