volve and signify, which are said concerning him in the New Testament, as in Matthew xi. 7—15; Luke vii. 24-28. Also by these words in Matthew, "The disciples asked Jesus, Why do the scribes say, that Elias must first come? He answering said, Elias indeed shall first come, and restore all things; I say unto you, that Elias hath already come, and they did not acknowledge him, but did to him whatsoever they willed; so likewise shall the Son of Man suffer of them: and they understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist," xvii. 10, 13; that Elias came, and they did not acknowledge him, but "did to him whatsoever they willed," signifies that the Word indeed taught them that the Lord was to come, but that still they were not willing to comprehend, interpreting it in favour of self-dominion, and thereby extinguishing the Divine principle which was in it: that they were about to do the like with Truth Divine itself, is signified by "likewise so shall the Son of Man suffer of them;" the Son of Man is the Lord as to Truth Divine. From these considerations it is now evident what is meant by the prophecy concerning John, in Malachi, "Behold, I send unto you Elias the prophet, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh," iv. 5. The Word is also described in the ultimate, or such as it is in the external form which appears before man in the world, by the clothing and by the food of John the Baptist, as in Matthew, "John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea had clothing of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey," iii. 1, 3, 4: in like manner as Elias in the second book of Kings, where it is written, "that he was a hairy man, and girded about the loins with a girdle of leather," i. 8; by "clothing or a garment," when concerning the Word, is signified Truth Divine therein in the ultimate form; by "the hairs of a camel" are signified scientific truths such as are there before man in the world; by "a leathern girdle" is signified the external bond connecting and keeping in order all interior things; by "food" is signified spiritual nourishment derived from the knowledges of truth and good from the Word; by "locusts" are signified ultimate or most common truths; and by "wild honey" their pleasantness: the reason why such things are signified by clothing and food, is grounded in representatives in the other life; where all appear clothed according to truths derived from good, and where food also is presented according to the desire of knowing and growing wise; from this ground it is that "clothing or a garment" denotes truth. He who does not know that such

things are signified, cannot in any wise know why Elias and John were so clothed; that those things signified something peculiar to those prophets, every one may think, who thinks well of the Word. Inasmuch as John the Baptist represented the Lord as to the Word, therefore also when he spake concerning the Lord, who was the Word Itself, he said of himself that he was not Elias, nor a prophet, and that he was not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord's shoe; from which words it is evident that John, when he spake concerning the Lord Himself, who was Divine Truth Itself or the Word, said that he was not any thing, inasmuch as the shade disappears when the light itself appears, or the representative disappears when the effigy itself appears. He who does not know that representatives vanish away like shadows at the presence of light, cannot know why John denied that he was Elias and a prophet. A. C. 9372.

Verses 7, 8. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, &c.-Light signifies the Divine Truth; wherefore the Lord is called the true light which illuminates every man; and to bear witness concerning the light signifies the acknowledgement of His Divine Human from which Divine Truth proceeds. This witness is in Divine Truth universally, as may be manifest from this consideration, that the angels of the interior heaven cannot think otherwise of the Divine [Being] than under a human form, thus of the Divine Human, by reason that the Divine Human [sphere] of the Lord fills the universal heaven, and forms it, and the thoughts of the angels are directed and flow according to the form of heaven. Hence it is that the testimony [or witness] of Jesus Christ signifies the acknowledgement of the DIVINE of the Lord in His Human. A. E. 27.

Verses 9, 10. That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, &c.-The Divine Truth, which is from the Lord, continually flows-in with man, and makes his intellectual principle; and if you are disposed to believe it, man, without the continual influx of Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, cannot perceive and understand any thing at all: for the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is the light which illuminates the mind of man, and makes the internal sight, which is the understanding; and whereas that light continually flows-in, therefore it adapts every one to receive; but they who receive, are they who are in the good of life; and they who do not receive, are they who are in evil of life; nevertheless these latter, as well as the former, are in the faculty of perceiving and understand

ing, and likewise in the faculty of receiving, so far as they desist from evils. This is what is meant by these words in John, "That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world: He was in the world, and the world was made by Him: but the world knew Him not." The subject treated of in this passage is concerning the Word, which is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord. That every man in the world, who is of sound reason, is in the faculty of understanding Divine Truth, and hence in the faculty of receiving, so far as he desists from evils, has been given me to know by much experience; for all, both evil and good, as many as are in the other life, are capable of understanding what is true and what is false, also what is good and what is evil, but they who are evil, although they understand what is true and good, are still not willing to understand; for the will is repugnant, and in the will is evil; wherefore when they are left to themselves, they still relapse into the falses of their own evil, and hold in aversion what is true and good, which they understood. Hence it was made evident, that the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord continually flows-in into human minds, and adapts them to receive, and that it is so far received as man desists from the evils which are of self-love and the love of the world. A. C. 9399; see also 10,196.

Verse 10. The world was made by Him, &c.--None can form a just idea concerning the creation of the universe, unless the understanding be brought into a state of perception by certain universal knowledges first premised, such as the following: 1. That there are two worlds, a spiritual world for angels and spirits, and a natural world for men. 2. That in each world there is a Sun, and that the Sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it; and that from that Sun proceed heat and light, the heat thence proceeding being in its essence love, and the light thence proceeding being in its essence wisdom; and these two affect the will and understanding of man, the heat his will, and the light his understanding: but that the sun of the natural world is pure fire, and therefore that the heat and light thence proceeding are dead, and that they serve as clothing and aids to spiritual heat and light, by which they may be conveyed to man. 3. Further, that the heat and light proceeding from the Sun of the spiritual world, and consequently whatever exists by their means in that world, are substantial, and are called spiritual; and that the heat and light proceeding from the sun of the natural world, and con

sequently whatever exists therein by their means, are material, and are called natural. 4. That in each world there are three degrees, which are called degrees of altitude, and consequently three regions, according to which the three angelic heavens are arranged; and that there is a similar arrangement in human minds, which thus correspond with the three angelic heavens; and that other things in each world have a like arrangement. 5. That there is a correspondence between the things that exist in the spiritual world, and those that exist in the natural world. 6. That there is an order, in and according to which all and every thing in both worlds was created. 7. That unless a just idea on these subjects be first obtained, the human mind may, by mere ignorance, be easily betrayed into an idea of the creation of the universe by nature, and allow nature to be created by God only in compliance with the authority of the church; but because it knows not how this was effected, if it enters upon a deeper investigation of the subject, it falls into naturalism, which denies the being of a God. T. C. R. 75.

The angelic idea concerning the universe created from the Lord is as follows, that God is the centre, and that He is a Man, and that unless God was a Man, creation would not have been possible, and that the Lord from eternity is that God. Concerning creation they said, that the Lord from eternity, or God by His Divine Proceeding (principle,) created the universe, and all things therein, and since the Divine Proceeding is also Life Itself, that all things were created from Life and by Life; and that the proximate Divine Proceeding is what appears before the angels as a Sun; that this Sun before their eyes appears fiery and flaming; and that the Divine Proceeding is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, of which such is the appearance afar off; they added, that that Divine Proceeding is what the ancients effigied by golden or lucid pure circles around the head of God, and which modern painters still retain from the ancient idea. They said that from that Sun as a great centre, proceed circles, one after another, and one from another, even to the last, where their end is, subsisting in rest; and that those circles, of which one is from another, and one after another, appearing as extended into what is broad and into what is long, are spiritual atmospheres, which the light and heat from their Sun fill, and by which they propagate themselves to the ultimate circle; and that in the last, by means of those atmospheres, and afterwards by means of the natural atmospheres which are from the sun of the world, was effected the creation of the

earth, and on it of all things which are for use, which creation is afterwards continued by generations from seeds, in wombs, or in eggs. Those angels (who knew that the universe so created was a continuous work from the Creator even to ultimates, and that, as being a continuous work, it depended upon, and was actuated and governed as one work linked together by the Lord, who is the common centre) said, that the first proceeding (principle) was continued even to ultimates by discrete degrees, altogether as an end by causes into effects; or as something producing and its products in a continued series, and that the continuation was not only in, but also around, from the first (principle,) and thence from every prior (principle) into every posterior one even to the postreme, or last, and that thus the first (principle,) and from it the posterior (principles) co-exist in their order in the postreme or last. From this continuity, as a one, they have an idea concerning the Lord, that He is all in all, that He is Omniptotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient, that He is Infinite and Eternal; and also an idea what the order is, according to which the Lord, by His Divine Love and His Divine Wisdom, arranges, provides, and governs all things.

It was asked, whence then is hell? They said, from the freedom of man, without which man would not be man; that man, from that freedom broke continuity in himself, which being broken, separation was effected, and the continuity, which from creation was in him, became as a chain, or a linked work, which falls to picces through the breaking and plucking asunder of the links above, and afterwards hangs from small threads. Separation or breach was effected, and is effected, by the denial of God. D. W., last article.

And the world knew Him not.-See Exposition, verse 5. Verse 11. He came unto His own, &c.-They who have the Word, that is, where the church is, are said to belong to the Lord above others. That they are said to belong to the Lord appears from the Lord's words in John, i. 11; x. 2-4. They who have the Word know the truths and goods of faith, and in consequence thereof can live the life of heaven, and thereby be conjoined to the Lord, more than others; for the good which makes heaven with man, has its quality from the truths of faith, thus good becomes more celestial or more divine with those who have genuine truths, which are truths from the Word, supposing they are kept, that is, supposing that the life is formed according to them. A. C. 8768.

By His own who do not receive, are meant those who were of the church where the Word was, by which the Lord could