Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/285

Rh cherubim had one measure and one proportion" (vi. 23-25). It is also evident from the lavers about the temple, and from the candlesticks, of which we read in the same book that "five bases of the lavers were set near the shoulder of the house to the right, and five near the shoulder of the house to the left" . . . and that "five candlesticks were set on the right, and five on the left, before the holy place" (vii. 39, 49). That "the brazen sea was ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference" (vii. 23), was that holy things might be signified both by the numbers ten and five, and by thirty; which number of the circumference in fact does not geometrically answer to the diameter, but it spiritually involves that which is signified by the compass of that vessel. That all numbers signify things in the spiritual world, is very evident from the numbers in Ezekiel where the new earth, the new city, and the new temple are treated of, which the angel measured as to all its particulars (see chapters xl. xli. xlii. xliii. xlv. xlvi. xlvii. xlviii. xlix.), A description of almost all the holy things therein is exhibited by numbers; and therefore one who does not know what those numbers involve can know scarcely anything of the arcana contained therein. The number ten and the number five occur there (xl. 7, 11, 48; xli. 2, 9, 11, 12; xlii. 4; xlv. 11, 14), besides the multiplied numbers; namely, twenty-five, fifty, five hundred, five thousand. It is manifest from the particulars that the new earth, the new city, and the new temple there signify the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and His church therefrom on the earth. (A. C. n. 5291.)

A greater and lesser number, or a multiplied and divided number, involves a similar signification to that of the simple numbers from which it is derived. This is very manifest from the number twelve, which has a similar signification, whether it be divided into six or multiplied into seventy-two or into 144; that is twelve into twelve, or into 12,000, or into 144,000. As for instance 144,000 in the Apocalypse: "I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred forty four thousand, they were sealed out of every tribe of Israel; out of each tribe twelve thousand" (vii. 4, 5, and following verses). In this passage the sons of Israel are not meant by the sons of Israel, nor the tribes by the tribes, nor number by number, but such things as are in the internal sense are meant; namely, all things of faith and charity; and so by each tribe specifically one genus or one class, as has been explained at Genesis xxix. and xxx. So again in the Apocalypse: "Lo, a Lamb standing upon mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 having His Father's name written upon their foreheads. . . . They sung a new song before the throne, . . . and no one could learn the song but the 144,000 bought from the earth. . . .