Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7721

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7721. 'And Pharaoh called Moses' means the presence of the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling to oneself' as presence, dealt with in 6177, 7390, 7451; and from the representation of 'Moses' as the law of God, dealt with in 6727, 6752, 7014, 7382. The presence of the law of God with the molesters should not be taken to mean that they perceived where the plagues came from, at this point where the very dense falsity arising from evil, meant by 'thick darkness', came from. When the evil undergo vastation in the next life they are often allowed to perceive the origin of the miseries they suffer when they are punished, in order that they may know that the cause lies not in the Divine but in themselves. Experiences like this also happen quite often to those in hell, though only when they are in a quiescent state. It happens to them for a number of reasons, mainly in order that they may remember the evil deeds they performed in the world.


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