859. That by "Gog and Magog" are signified they who are in external worship and not in any internal worship, may appear in Ezekiel from chap. xxxviii., where it treats of Gog from beginning to end; and from chap. xxxix. there (vers. 1-16); but that these are signified by "Gog and Magog" does not clearly appear there, except from the spiritual sense; which because it has been disclosed to me, shall be opened; first what those signify which are contained in those two chapters. In the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel are these things: "It treats of those who are in the sense of the letter of the Word alone, and thence in external worship without internal, which Is "Gog" (verses 1, 2); that each and all things of that worship will perish (verses 3-7); that that worship will take possession of the church, vastate it, and thus it will be in externals without internals (verses 8-16); that the state of the church will thereby be changed (verses 17-19); that thence the truths and goods of religion will perish, and falsities succeed (verses 20-23)."
[2] In the thirty-ninth chapter of the same prophet are these things: "Of those who are in the sense of the letter of the Word alone and in external worship, that they will come into the church, which is "Gog," but that they will perish (verses 1-6); that this will come to pass when the Lord comes and establishes the church (verses 7, 8); that this church will then disperse all their evils and falsities (verses 9, 10); that it will altogether destroy them (verses 11-16); that the New Church to be established by the Lord will be informed in truths and goods of every kind, and be imbued with goods of every kind (verses 17-21); and that the former church will be destroyed on account of evils and falsities (verses 23, 24); that then the church will be collected by the Lord from all nations (verses 25-29)."
[3] But something shall be said of those who are in external worship without internal spiritual worship. These are they who frequent temples on sabbaths and festivals, and then sing psalms and pray, hearken to preachings, and then attend to the eloquence, and little or nothing to the substance, and are somewhat moved by prayers uttered with affection, as that they are sinners, but never reflect upon themselves and their life; who also go to the Sacrament of the Supper yearly; pour out prayers morning and evening, and also pray at dinners and suppers and sometimes discourse about God, heaven, and eternal life, and then also they know how to repeat some passages from the Word, and simulate Christians, although they are not; for after they have done these things, they make nothing of adulteries, and obscenities, revenges and hatreds, clandestine thefts and depredations, lies and blasphemies, and lusts and intentions of evils of every kind. They who are such do not believe in any God, much less in the Lord; if they are asked what the good and truth of religion is, they know nothing, and think it of no importance to know; in a word, they live to themselves and the world, thus to their inclinations and bodies, and not to God and the neighbor, thus not to the spirit and soul; from which it is plain that their worship is external without internal worship; these also readily receive the heresy of faith alone, especially when they hear that man cannot do good of himself, and that they are not under the yoke of the law; this is the reason why it is said "the dragon will go forth to seduce the nations, Gog and Magog." By "Gog and Magog" also, in the Hebrew language, is signified a roof and a floor, thus what is external.