(TCR) - True Christian Religion: Containing the Whole Theology of the New Church Predicted by the Lord in Daniel 7:13-14 and Revelation 21:1-2

TCR 215

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215. In part the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are not naked truths, but are appearances of truth, and are like similitudes and comparisons which are taken from such things as exist in nature, and are therefore accommodated and adapted to the capacity of the simple and also of children. But as these are at the same time correspondences, they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth, and are vessels containing it, as a crystal cup contains noble wine, or a silver dish good food; they are also like garments for clothing the body, as swaddling clothes for an infant, or becoming garments for a maiden; they are also like the knowledges of the natural man, which comprise within them the perceptions and affections of spiritual truth. The naked truths themselves, which are included, contained, clothed, and comprised, are in the spiritual sense of the Word, and the naked goods in its celestial sense. But this shall be illustrated from the Word. [2] Jesus said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside may be clean also (Matt. 23:25, 26).
Here the Lord spoke by similitudes and comparisons that are also correspondences, using the terms "cup" and "platter," "cup" not only meaning but also signifying the truth of the Word, for by the "cup" wine is meant, and "wine" signifies truth. But by "platter" food is meant, and food signifies good; therefore "to cleanse the inside of the cup and platter" signifies to purify by means of the Word the interiors of the mind, which pertain to the will and thought. "That the outside may thus be clean" signifies that the exteriors, which are the things done and said, are thus purified; for these derive their essence from the former. [3] Again Jesus said:
There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of sores (Luke 16:19, 20).
Here, too, the Lord spoke by similitudes and comparisons that were correspondences and that contained spiritual things. The "rich man" means the Jewish nation, which is called "rich" because it had the Word, which contains spiritual riches; the "purple and fine linen" with which he was clothed, signify the good and truth of the Word, "purple" its good, and "fine linen" its truth; his "faring sumptuously every day" signifies their satisfaction in having the Word and in hearing many things from it in their temples and synagogues; "the beggar Lazarus" means the Gentiles, because they did not have the Word; that these were despised and rejected by the Jews is meant by his being "laid at the rich man's gate;" and his being "full of sores" signifies that owing to their ignorance of truth the Gentiles were in many falsities. [4] The Gentiles were meant by Lazarus, because the Lord loved the Gentiles. As:
He loved the Lazarus who was raised from the dead (John 11:3, 5, 36); and who is called the Lord's friend (John 11:11); and reclined at the table with the Lord (John 12:2).
From the above two passages it is clear that the truths and goods of the sense of the letter of the Word are like vessels, or like clothing for the naked good and truth, both of which lie hidden in the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word. [5] The Word in the sense of the letter being such, it follows that those who are in Divine truths, and in the belief that the Word inwardly in its bosom is the holy Divine and still more those who are in the belief that the Word is such because of its spiritual and celestial senses, when they read the Word in states of enlightenment from the Lord, see Divine truths in natural light. For the light of heaven, in which the spiritual sense is, flows into the natural light in which the sense of the letter of the Word is, and illuminates the intellectual faculty of man which is called his rational, causing it to see and acknowledge Divine truths, both where they stand forth and where they lie hidden. With some these truths flow in at the same time with the light of heaven, sometimes even when they are unconscious of it.

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