Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/279

Rh ''And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. . . . And behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him"'' (Matt. xvii. 1-5; Mark ix. 2-8; Luke ix. 28-36.) The reason why the Lord took Peter, James, and John, was because the church was represented by them in respect to faith, charity, and the works of charity; that He took them into a high mountain was because by a mountain heaven was signified; that His face did shine as the sun was because the face signifies the interiors,—it shone as the sun because His interiors were Divine, for the sun is Divine love; His raiment was white as the light, because raiment signifies Divine truth proceeding from Him; the same is signified, too, by light. The reason why Moses and Elias appeared was because they both signify the Word, Moses the historical Word, and Elias the prophetical Word; a bright cloud overshadowed them, because a bright cloud signifies the Word in the letter within which is the internal sense; the voice out of the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him," because a voice out of the cloud signifies Divine truth from the Word, and beloved Son, the Lord's Divine Human. And because Divine truth is from Him, and hence all the truth of the church, it was said out of the cloud, "In whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." It is clear that the Divine Human of the Lord was thus seen, because the very Divine cannot appear to any one except by the Divine Human. This indeed the Lord teaches in John: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath manifested Him" (i. 18). And in another place: "Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape" (John v. 37). . . . From the fact that the Lord's garments signify Divine truth it may be known what is signified by the soldiers dividing the Lord's garments among them, and casting lots upon His vesture; of which it is thus written in John: "The soldiers took His garments, and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also His coat; now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be. That the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did" (xix. 23, 24). He who does not know that in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense which is spiritual, cannot see any mystery in these things. He knows only that the soldiers divided the garments and not the coat, and perceives nothing more than this; and yet there is a Divine secret not only in this circumstance, but also in every least particular of the things recorded concerning the Lord's passion